Despite a narrow victory for Mitt Romney in the popular vote, the former Massachusetts governor has split Michigan’s 30 delegates to the Republican National Convention with Rick Santorum, according to projections from the Associated Press and ABC News.

Each candidate won 15 of the state’s delegates, which awards candidates two delegates for winning each of it’s 14 congressional districts. The remaining two delegates were split proportionally, based on the statewide vote.

That means that Santorum ultimately won the same number of congressional districts – seven – as Romney, despite trailing Romney by a little over 30,000 votes statewide.

It takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination; according to the Associated Press’ projections, Romney now leads with 167, compared to 87 for Santorum, 32 for Newt Gingrich, and 19 for Ron Paul.

Sanotrum’s campaign pointed to the delegate count as evidence of a strong showing in Mitt Romney’s home state.

“It’s highly likely this is is going to end up being a tie, based on the data that we have,” Santorum adviser John Brabender told reporters Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. “I don’t know how you look at that as anything besides this being a strong showing for Rick Santorum and anything short of a disaster for Mitt Romney.

“If we can do this well in Romney’s home state, this bodes well for Super Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign emphasized that with his victory in Arizona, he had come away from the evening with a net gain in delegates – and the moral victory of winning the popular vote in both states.

READ MORE: THE HILL