Trump Crushing Romney's 2012 Performance by Over 2 Million Votes

Data compiled since the New York GOP primary shows that billionaire Donald Trump's popular vote total in 2016 in states that have voted so far significantly exceeds the vote totals that Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, had in those states in total. All in all, in the contests that have been had so far in 2016, Trump towers over Romney--having won more than 2 million more votes in the 2016 GOP primaries. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the next closest vote-getter to Trump this cycle, falls just under 300,000 votes short of Romney's totals in the 2012 cycle.

In total, Trump has received 8,776,586 votes so far this year in states that have already held primaries or caucuses or conventions. In those same states in 2012, Romney received 6,654,029 votes--a whopping 2,122,557 votes less than Donald Trump. That means Trump has gotten a 31.79 percent increase over Romney's totals.

Meanwhile, Cruz, in states that have voted already in 2016 has received an impressive 6,452,032 votes. While admirable, that's still 201,977 votes less than Romney's 2012 totals in those states--a decrease of 3.04 percent from Romney's 2012 votes.

The analysis shows that of the nearly 40 contests so far, Trump's 2016 vote totals have demolished Romney's 2012 vote totals in most places.

In Alabama, for instance, Trump’s 373,721 votes in 2016 were 193,385 votes more than Romney’s 180,336 votes in 2012. In Arizona, Trump won 47,576 more votes than Romney. Trump beat Romney by more than 300,000 votes in the swing state of Florida—which Romney lost to President Obama in the general election in 2012—and Trump similarly outperformed the former Massachusetts Governor in the critical state of Ohio by more than the margin Romney lost Ohio to Obama in the general election. Trump, in the 2016 primary, won 713,404 votes in Ohio—252,573 more than Romney’s 460,831 in the 2012 primary. Romney lost Ohio to Obama in the general election in 2012 by only 166,214 votes. Trump even beat Romney in his home state of Massachusetts by more than 46,000 votes.

In Trump’s home state of New York, too, the real estate developer finished well more than four times better than Romney did four years earlier. Romney in 2012 only received 118,912 votes in the Empire State while Trump in 2016 received 515,091 votes.