Mitt Romney won Nevada’s GOP caucuses by a wide margin Saturday, a victory that was long expected and helps further his campaign’s argument that he is the inevitable nominee.

Romney held a big lead in early voting results, but The Associated Press and TV networks did not project a winner until all the caucus locations had closed.

With 8.1 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 40.5 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul were in a close race to take second place. Rick Santorum will finish fourth.

Romney’s win caps a rough week in which the former governor of Massachusetts took some lumps for a verbal stumble where said he’s “not concerned about the very poor.”

Nevada was long expected to be a stronghold for Romney, who won it with a pure majority of the vote in the 2008 election. No other candidates besides Paul spent much time and effort organizing for the state’s caucuses, and the large Mormon population in the Silver State gave Romney a strong base of support. His momentum coming out of Florida further helped him with this win.

The big win after a rough week suggests two things: that Romney remains the odds-on favorite to be the GOP nominee, and parts of the GOP base are still strongly against him.

(Source: The Hill)