Filed by KOSU News in US News.
January 21, 2012

Rick Santorum is officially the winner of the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican presidential caucus. The state Republican Party reversed itself from a previous assertion that it would not declare one, given problems at eight precincts, as The Des Moines Register reported.

In a news release late Friday, the party said it called the race “in order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released Jan. 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa.”

The preliminary count on the Jan. 3 primary put former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ahead by eight votes, as NPR reported that night. Later, the party said there was no official winner, though a recanvassing of the votes showed Santorum won by 34 votes.

We will update with more as we have it from NPR’s Don Gonyea. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]