Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign event at Horizontal Wireline Services on July 17, 2012 in Irwin, Pa. AP/Evan Vucci
TAMPA, Florida—Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney secured the Republican presidential nomination by delegate roll call on Tuesday at the party convention in Tampa.
In a state-by-state count of delegates that reflected the results of the Republican primary elections earlier in the year, Romney soared past the 1,144 threshold needed to formally earn the nomination.
The process removed any shadow of doubt that the presumptive nominee to take on President Barack Obama in the November election could face a challenge on the floor of the convention.
Romney, a 65-year-old multi-millionaire businessman, will formally take up the nomination with a prime time acceptance speech on Thursday, the climax of three days of political theater at a packed-out convention center in Tampa, Florida.
Romney lies neck-and-neck with Obama in national polls 10 weeks before an election that should be his for the taking, given the sour economy and an unemployment rate that is lingering stubbornly above eight percent.