Mitt Romney has sealed the Republican presidential nomination in the US to face Barack Obama in the November election.
On Tuesday night he mathematically secured it with a win in the Texas primary after months on the campaign trail to win over skeptical conservative voters.
In a statement, Romney said he was humbled to win enough of Texas’ 155 delegates to secure the nomination.
“Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us. I have no illusions about the difficulties of the task before us. But whatever challenges lie ahead, we will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the path to full employment and prosperity,” he said.
Though he has been the presumptive nominee for weeks since Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich left the race, Republicans will not officially nominate Romney until the party’s national convention in Tampa, Florida in late August.
He entered the Texas primary with 1,086 convention delegates – 58 shy of the 1,144 needed to win the nomination.
Libertarian-leaning Texas Rep. Ron Paul said on May 14 he would no longer compete in primaries, though his supporters are still working to gain national delegates at state conventions.
