Mitt Romney took a major leap toward securing the GOP nomination Tuesday night with a decisive victory in the home state of his final remaining competitor. Early returns showed the former Massachusetts governor holding more than 70 percent of the vote in the Texas primary, while Ron Paul was barely surpassing 10 percent.

Texas awards 155 delegates and most of them will be bound to Mitt Romney. As of 9:32 pm central time, the Texas Secretary of State’s office reported Romney had already gained 108 of the state’s delegates.

“Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us,” Romney said in a statement. “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.”

Many media outlets, and even Romney’s campaign, are reporting Romney surpassed the 1,144 delegate threshold necessary to secure the nomination. However, those figures are based on estimates. TheIowaRepublican.com’s count measures bound delegates. Romney has not reached 1,144 bound delegates yet, but he is on track to do that before the primary races end next month.

Photo by Dave Davidson, Prezography.com