Santorum takes Louisiana

 
Grand Old Party (GOP) candidate Rick Santorum continued his journey to the Republican nomination with his victory Saturday in the Bayou State’s Republican presidential primary.​
The win granted Santorum his 11th victory in the primary, and his sixth conservative Southern state win over frontrunner Mitt Romney.​
According to recent polls, Santorum toppled Romney Saturday with an amount of 91, 305 votes to Romney’s 49, 749 votes.​
All four GOP candidates made campaign stops in Louisiana before the primary, Santorum in New Orleans, Newt Gingrich in Lake Charles, Pineville and New Orleans, Mitt Romney in Shreveport, and Ron Paul in Pineville and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. 
Despite the candidates campaign runs, Romney and Santorum have been the front-runners for the Republican nomination leading Paul and Gingrich with every passing primary.  
Gingrich came in third Saturday behind Romney and Santorum, with 29, 665 votes and managed to beat Paul who had only 11,460 votes. 
Since statehood, Louisiana has been a traditionally conservative state full of middle-class whites and African Americans.  
According to a CNN poll, about 40 percent of Louisiana voters are still politically conservative.  
Santorum expected the win, with his campaign driven largely by conservative religious voters who have propelled him to previous victories. 
According to the Associated Press, Santorum said, “I’m not running as a conservative candidate for president. I am the conservative candidate for president.”
 
Even with Santorum’s win over Romney, he still is behind in the race to the 1, 144 delegates needed to win the republican nomination with only 221 delegates to Romney’s 500 delegates. 
With three months left in primaries, Santorum looks to a sure victory, has managed to stay competitive against Romney and continuously slights president Obama’s campaign.​
Romney’s well on his way to getting the Republican nomination, already having half the delegates needed and has cast himself as the only GOP candidate with an organization hefty enough to take on President Barack Obama’s campaign. 
According to the Boston Herald, the former Massachusetts governor has spent $68 million so far on his campaign; $25.4 million went to fundraising and media ads in primary elections in states.​
“The other guys are nice folks, but they haven’t organized a campaign with a staff, the organization, the fundraising capacity to actually beat Barack Obama, Romney said on Fox News this month. “I have.”
​
Seemingly without a primary opponent, Obama’s re-election campaign pumped nearly $79 million last month toward laying the groundwork for the general election, and deploying staff to corners of the country such as Laramie, Wyo., and Lebanon, N.H. 
One of Obama’s leading concerns besides his republican competition is the fate of his health care law.​
According to the Washington Post, Monday the Supreme Court has begun ​​ruling on the constitutionality of the law, and will be hearing arguments on the issue through Wednesday.​
The main dispute over the law is a provision in it that requires individuals to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. 
Obama’s healthcare law has been under constant scrutiny from the GOP presidential candidates and with his re-election holding priority, his campaign has begun highlighting the benefits of the law, hoping to counter it.