GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won a resounding victory in Puerto Rico’s primary contest on Sunday.

CNN projected Romney as the winner three hours after polls closed at 4 p.m. ET.

With 11 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 82 percent of the vote followed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum with 9 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had 3 percent of the votes cast, followed by Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) at 1 percent.

Romney was seen as the leading candidate in the island territory, as he had the endorsement of Gov. Luis Fortuño (R), who also appeared with Romney late last week.

Puerto Rico has 20 delegates up for grabs, all of which go to Romney. The island territory only awards delegates proportionally if none of the candidates receive 50 percent of the vote.

Both Romney and Santorum visited the territory last week. Romney held two events on the island, including a rally on Saturday in Old San Juan, where he was joined by Mr. Fortuño, a prominent advocate of statehood for the territory.

The win increases Romney’s delegate count to more than 500, and he still has more than twice as many as Rick Santorum.

The victory comes following a difficult week where Romney failed to deliver a knock-out punch to his rivals in Southern primaries in Mississippi and Alabama. Those primaries were won by Rick Santorum who, while trailing Romney in national polls, fundraising and organization, has continued to win nominating contests, as he positions himself as the conservative alternative to the GOP frontrunner.

Santorum’s hopes for winning in Puerto Rico suffered a setback last week when he was caught in a controversy after saying that the territory must adopt English as its official language if it wants to become a state.

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