Columbus, Ohio (CNN) -- Mitt Romney will win four states and Rick Santorum three on Super Tuesday, while Newt Gingrich grabbed a vital triumph in Georgia, CNN projected.
However, the big prize of the night -- battleground state Ohio -- remained too close to call in a duel between Romney and Santorum.
Santorum's victories showed his continuing strength among conservative voters, while Gingrich's win in the state that sent him to Congress allows him to keep his campaign going.
The Santorum victories -- in Tennessee and Oklahoma primaries, and in North Dakota's caucuses -- also hurt Gingrich's Southern strategy after the former House speaker's triumphs in South Carolina and now Georgia, which both border Tennessee.
Super Tuesday results
"It looks we're going to get at least a couple of gold medals, and a whole passel full of silver medals," Santorum told cheering supporters in Ohio, where he was running slightly ahead of Romney in a race too close to call.
Romney, meanwhile, easily won as expected in Virginia, Vermont, Idaho and Massachusetts, the state where he served as governor and considers home. In Virginia, two of his challengers -- Santorum and Gingrich -- failed to qualify for the ballot.
The Super Tuesday contests in 10 states put 419 delegates up for grabs. Based on the partial results, CNN estimated that Romney had accumulated 292 delegates to 121 for Santorum, 77 for Gingrich and 52 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
For Gingrich, who represented Georgia's sixth congressional district for two decades, the victory provided a new boost after a string of defeats since his only other primary triumph in South Carolina.
"Thank you Georgia! It is gratifying to win my home state so decisively to launch our March Momentum," Gingrich said Tuesday night in a Twitter post.
"There's lots of bunny rabbits that run through," Gingrich later told supporters in Georgia. "I'm the tortoise."
A Gingrich campaign source also told CNN on condition of not being identified that the former House speaker will become the third GOP candidate to get Secret Service protection starting Wednesday. Romney and Santorum already have that protection.
Super Tuesday live blog
Romney entered Super Tuesday off of three wins last week and a growing lead in the race for the nomination to face President Barack Obama in November.
In remarks to supporters in Boston, Romney focused on Obama in trying to sound like the presumptive nominee.
Citing unemployment that remains above 8%, Romney said the figure is just an "inconvenient statistic" in the eyes of the Obama administration.
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