90 calorie bar. ♪ this is an abc news election update. the iowa caucuses. good evening. i'm terry moran and we're breaking in because we can bring you tonight at long last, after an extraordinary night here in des moines, iowa, the results of the iowa caucuses. yes, there is a winner in the closest caucuses in history. and here it is. mitt romney has just been declared by the iowa republican party the winner. but look at this vote total. he defeats senator rick santorum by 8 votes out of 60,000. 60,000 between them, 120,000 all told. and coming up in third place,

just behind him, ron paul in a strong showing here with a fervent, passionate support. he goes on. newt gingrich coming in fourth. texas governor rick perry, michele bachmann, and jon huntsman bringing up the rear there. but what an extraordinarily close race, just minutes ago here in des moines. the chairman of the republican party made the announcement. >> but i can report with 1770 precincts reporting, governor mitt romney received 30,015 votes. senator rick santorum received 30,007 votes. congratulations to governor mitt romney, winner of the 2012 iowa caucuses. congratulations to senator santorum for a very close second place finish and an excellent race here. and congratulations to congressman paul and all the other candidates who competed in the 2012 iowa caucuses. thank you very much and have a good night.

>> 8 votes. abc's jake tapper joins me, white house correspondent, also covering the sar tontorum race. >> there is not going to be a recount but they will certify the vote in two weeks. >> i think first of all the message, you know, a win's a win. mitt romney won. but when you look at the fact that he has basically been running for president for six years, that he has participated in this contest before, basically within 500 votes of his previous total four years ago, and he only beat rick santorum on a shoe string budget with very little support, an asterisk in the polls until a few weeks ago, by 8 votes, says something about his feeling, says something about the fact that conservatives out there are looking for someone else. that's not to say he won't ultimately be the nominee. but it's going to be a struggle. >> so a tough night for romney. a big night for senator rick

santorum, coming from the back of the pack there, no question about it. he goes on with a head of steam. >> he absolutely leaves iowa as if he won, even though he came in second. the question is that has been how others have left this state. pat robertson comes to find. he came in second but he was able to make that as if it was a victory. then he couldn't take it anywhe anywhere. mike huckabee doing very well, came in first, couldn't take it anywhere, didn't have the inpractice structure. does rick santorum have the ability to take it beyond here? >> that's a big question for him. what do conservatives across the country do? they have not enamored of mitt romney. do they put their shoulders to the wheel for rick santorum? mitt romney, razor-thin victory. we're going to return you to your regular programming which for much of the country is going to to be "nightline."

tonight on "nightline," a special election edition. breaking news. an indirectly 11th hour victory as iowa kicks off the 2012 campaign for the white house. we'll tell you who's up, who's down, and what it all means. down to the wire. >> game on. >> we've got all the latest results from the state that kicks off the 2012 campaign for the white house. and the good, the bad and the downright ugly. >> politicians who supported bailouts and mandates. >> after weeks of fierce political combat and an avalanche of negative ads, the voters have finally spoken. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, and terry moran in des moines, iowa, this is a special edition of "nightline," january 3rd, 2012.

the iowa caucuses. your voice, your vote. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. what an extraordinary night here in des moines. welcome to abc news' special coverage of the iowa caucuses. which basically ended in a dead heat. a flat dead heat. it's the closest race in iowa caucus history, you can't imagine anything closer. let's go right to the results. mitt romney has just been declared by the republican party here the winner. 30,015 votes. rick santorum, second place, 30,007 votes. 8 votes separating them. just an amazingly close race. and then the rest of the field here. ron paul, a strong third place showing here. with his very passionate following. newt gingrich, once flying high, hammered by an avalanche of negative ads, down to 13%. rick perry, the governor of texas, he will go home to think about things after coming within

just 10%. and michele bachmann bringing up the rear here. let's take a look at what happened demographically. you can see the fracture in the republican party by taking a look at those voters who identified themselves as very conservative. the base of the republican party. rick santorum winning them whoppingly there. but for those vote hoarse say the most important thing was to defeat barack obama, it's the exact opposite story. mitt romney, clobbering santorum, he is seen as the electable one because there's no question that a big part of the republican party wants to defeat barack obama. abc news' jake tapper is with us right now. our senior white house correspondent also with santorum. it's a heck of a night for santorum. what does it say about mitt romney? >> it says that he has a ceiling. we've known this for a long time, according to polls. now we have it according to votes. he has a ceiling. 25% of the republican party is

sold on his message. businessman, strong conservative, able to beat barack obama. 75% of the republican party says, i don't know. i'm not so sure. they've been shopping around for a long time. you've seen a lot of front-runners come and go. herman cain, you might remember him. michele bachmann. rick perry. now we have rick santorum, who peaked at exactly the right time. politics, like life, it's timing. so he peaks at the right time. he is now the darling of christian conservatives. can he take that further with so little money, so little infrastructure. big questions. >> and yet he had a chance to introduce himself to the country tonight. making that speech late because the results were so close. but it was his theme. who was rick santorum if. >> what's interesting is he sells himself as a blue collar republican. who even though he is very, very conservative on a lot of social issues able to win over reagan democrats. that's how he won his house races in western pennsylvania,

it's how he won two statewide elections in pennsylvania. he talks a lot about his grandfather, the coal miner who worked in the coal mines. he's drawing a very stark contrast with mitt romney who of course comes from a background of wealth. and he's also making an electability appeal. because that's the big question about rick santorum. okay, christian conservatives like him. does anyone else? can he appeal beyond that base? he says yes, he did it in pennsylvania. we'll see. >> let's just take a brief look at some of what rick santorum had to say, introducing himself to the national audience. >> you. you, by standing up and not compromising. by standing up and being bold and leading. leading with that burden and responsibility you have to be first. you have taken the first step of taking back this country.

>> iowa made him. and right in what he's saying there, iowans, you did not compromise. that's a shot at mitt romney. romney has compromised. rick santorum has not compromised. >> that's a battle going forward. thanes for being here in the middle of the night. >> it's a lot of fun, good to be here. for the other candidates, of course, this is a very big night as well as jake was pointing out. mitt romney, a lot of the questions around him. at the end of the day, a win is a win and david muir has been covering his campaign. >> terry, good evening. a short time ago governor mitt romney came onto the stage with his wife ann, four of his sons, and he thanked his supporters in this crowd. they would have liked to have a decisive victory in iowa this time around but they consider this a victory nonetheless. here's what he said about rick santorum and about the numbers tonight a short time ago. >> congratulations to rick santorum. this has been a great victory for him and his effort.

he's worked very hard in iowa. we also feel it's been a great victory for us here. and ron paul as well. ron paul's had a great night. this has been terrific. i think it's great that here in the heartland of america, that a campaign begins, all three of us will be campaigning very hard to make sure we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation. and thank you, iowa, for the great send-off you're giving to us and to the others in this campaign. look, this is a -- this is a campaign night where america wins. we're going to change the white house and get america back on track. >> romney making it very clear he's looking forward now, moving on to new hampshire next, his own backyard. obviously former governor of massachusetts, he's got a summer home in new hampshire. there are going to be questions tomorrow about mitt romney, getting the number that he did here in iowa. not all that different from what you saw here four years ago as far as the electorate that he was able to capture here. and after all this talk of the majority of republicans polled saying he's the most electable,

he'll be asked, why not able to close the deal in a more significant way here in iowa, why the tie, and what to do now about a surging rick santorum? but this campaign tells us they are very happy, they said they feel great about these numbers, and they move forward. even beyond new hampshire, they've bought their first tv ad in florida, so they are looking ahead, terry. >> it's a machine, there's no question about it, david. it is a machine that we can tell you earned six votes less. romney got six votes less than he did in iowa in 2008. for ron paul, he's had a surge, a sort of steady surge. this is a big night for him. john karl is with the paul campaign. >> ron paul and his campaign here, they were looking for victory in iowa but they'll definitely take what they got. a third place finish. and a strong third place finish. as he told his supporters a short while ago, there are three tickets out of iowa, he

certainly got one of those. he's also got a campaign that is prepared to go nationally. he's still got a lot of money and boy does he have the supporters. those ron paul bringigades. as he came to the stage he spoke to them, talked about then as the one thing he has that no other candidate in this race has. >> there's nobody else that has people like you working hard and enthusiastic and believe in something. >> those ron paul brigades are here to shake up the republican party. the big secret he had here was bringing independent voters into the iowa caucuses. he won those independents overwhelmingly. many of them probably never having voted for a republican before. when paul continues on he is going to continue to try to shake up the party. and i predict he'll take this all the way to the convention, with as many delegates as he can, and try to have a real impact when the republicans finally get to formally crowning

their nominee in tampa this summer. >> and there's no question, john, with a lot of ron paul delegates at that convention should he go on and do well, the republican establishment is going to have its hands full. stay with us for more of abc news' special coverage of the iowa caucuses. it's your voice, your vote. whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee!

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welcome back to abc news special coverage of the iowa caucuses. your voice, your vote. dead heat tonight, no question about it. let's go right to our abc news political consultant matt dowd,

and republican strategist leslie sanchez, joining us from abc news election headquarters in new york. this incredibly close election, what does it say about the party and about what comes next? >> it's interesting to me, it says a lot. you have to congratulate mitt romney on a bare victory he had. i think the only one coming out of here with any real momentum is rick santorum, even though he lost by a few votes. he's the new guy on the scene. everybody else in the primary's had their shot. mitt romney, there's been the mitt romney primary which seems to get about 25% of the vote, and the non-mitt romney primary. that's what we're going to have to figure out in the course of the next few weeks is whether or not rick santorum has better and more lasting staying power than the other candidates that have surfaced in the course of this to take on mitt romney. and i think mitt romney has to answer the question whether he can get more votes than he's been able to get over the cost of the last four years. because as was pointed out, he got almost exactly the same vote he got four years ago when he

lost to mike huckabee. >> absolutely, absolutely. leslie, let me ask you, what did we learn tonight about the candidates in their performance? and in what they had to say to us after? >> it was really interesting. one of the last messages the campaign speeches that santorum had was, to iowa, you can tell the world, money does not buy iowa. that was a very important part. he was talking about hard work. a very stark contrast with mitt romney. and i think that's part of the appeal. he also earned the votes of most of the precincts governor huck debee did four years ago. primaries, you're going to see that. and i think everybody's, while we're looking at new hampshire, there's going to be a lot of attention tomorrow on south carolina, florida, especially if you're the romney camp. >> absolutely. >> you've got to put that concern, evangelical social conservatives who are still undecided. >> absolutely.

leslie and matt, thank you for staying up so late with us tonight, waiting for the results. thanks very much. we'll be right back with more coverage of the iowa caucuses. your vote, your voice. sergio! christina! question for you. what factors led you to buy your explorer. definitely the ecoboost option. what's pretty amazing is that you can get the fuel economy of a car in an suv.

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iowa finally is done. so next up, the battleground of new hampshire. and john berman is there in manchester. >> reporter: new hampshire picks presidents. just ask past new hampshire winners. presidents gary hart, pat buchanan, john mccain, and president hillary clinton. >> thank you, thank you. >> reporter: okay, maybe it doesn't always pick presidents. but it is the next great step on that yellow brick road to the

emerald city of the nomination. and guess who has a lake house by the yellow brick road. >> i've got a summer home here, we've got a lot of friends here. >> reporter: mitt romney, the former massachusetts governor, has a vacation house here and has been campaigning here since 2007. and will be very hard to beat here. >> good to see you. >> reporter: also waiting for the candidates here? >> welcome to new hampshire. >> reporter: former governor jon huntsman skipped iowa and has been camped out in the granite state for months. he knows if iowa is the place for candidates licking their wounds, new hampshire is the place where they come to pour salt in them. do you anticipate sharper elbows in this state starting tomorrow? >> hard to know. i think sharp elbows started a long time ago. that will continue. i think that's all part of differentiating candidate by candidate. >> how sharp are your elbows? >> sharp enough to get to where i need to be. >> reporter: if sharp elbows make you nervous, don't fret. remember, what happens i