DES MOINES – After a hard-fought battle that went down to the wire for the Iowa Republican caucuses on Tuesday, Mitt Romney was declared the victor after winning by 8 votes.  

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney waves to the crowd as he hold his wife Ann’s hand at his Iowa Caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa, January 3, 2012. REUTERS / Brian Snyder

It was the closest race in the history of the event between one of the presidential race’s headliners and a challenger that whose campaign seemed dead in the water a few weeks ago. 

Out of 122,255 cast, the big spender Romney ended up with 30,015 compared with 30,007 for Santorum, for totals around 25 percent altogether. 

Ron Paul finished third with 21% of the vote while Newt Gingrich checked in at 13%, Rick Perry had 10%, and Michelle Bachmann had just 5%, later announcing that she would withdraw from the presidential race following her disappointing showing and lack of campaign buzz. 

Early on Tuesday, officials had said that there would be no recount in the race. 

Four years ago, Romney finished fourth in the state before coming back for a close win this time around despite not campaigning nearly as much in 2012. 

The favorites continued to jockey for position with none of them grabbing a firm hold on Iowa according to various projections. 

In early August, Bachmann looked like the favorite in the Iowa straw polls while Paul, a Texas Congressman known for his pro-diplomacy, anti-war, anti-Federal Reserve Bank stances, finished close to her at just 152 votes behind. Paul also recently had been gaining much ground in Iowa according to preliminary numbers and was also seen as the favorite at one point even as detractors said his views were not “mainstream” enough to win and attacked him on foreign policy. 

In early September, Texas governor Perry looked to be leading the race, followed by retired pizza chain owner Herman Cain taking the lead in early October. Newt Gingrich then pulled ahead in December before the caucuses this month, which saw another shift as Santorum revived his hopes. 

The crowds were bigger this time around in Iowa, as huge audiences turned out to support their respective candidates. 

Analysts of Romney’s campaign are saying that his investment of over $10 million in the state from four years ago and more than 70 candidate days along with leftover voter contacts paid off this time around because many of the supporters he earned in 2008 stuck with him. 

Romney mostly targeted Republicans whose top concerns were in the realm business and the economy, more mainstream voters than some of the other candidates such as Santorum ended up targeting during the caucuses according to those who reported from Iowa. 

A coal miner’s son from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania, Santorum did not appear to have much momentum until recently. He lost by 18 percentage points five years ago in a bid to win re-election to the U.S. Senate. But the struggles of candidates like Gingrich, Perry, Cain and others ahead of him seemed to open the door for a last-minute run in Iowa. In the days after his strong showing, Santorum has seen a dramatic spike in campaign contributions. 

Just last month, Santorum drew only a handful of supporters to some of his campaign events. He jumped from about 10 percent in projections to his second-place finish. 

As for Paul, the dark horse candidate that resonates strongest with younger voters and those who are opposed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan along with continued sanctions and a lead-up to conflict with Iran, analysts described his campaign as the best-prepared team in Iowa with surprisingly strong funding and a great focus. The intensity of his supporters also stood out among analysts. 

Other candidates have criticized Paul for his views on Iran and other foreign policy views but those who support him are attracted to him because of them among other reasons. 

Next up is the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Jan. 10, which Perry will bypass as he re-evaluates his campaign.