Mitt Romney has won 222 congressional districts to President Barack Obama's 206 with seven counts still to be completed, according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
Although Obama won the 2012 election in an electoral college landslide of 332 to 206 votes and 51 to 47 per cent of the popular vote, if the election had been fought on the basis of who won the most of the 435 congressional districts then Romney would have cruised home.
According to Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, Obama won 15 districts that congressional Republicans took while Romney was the victor in six districts where Obama prevailed.
Winner: Barack Obama would not have been President elect if the election was based on congressional districts - which are divided according to population, with each containing around 647,000 voters High Five: Obama greets an audience member after speaking to workers about the economy during a visit to the Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in Redford, Mich., Monday Details: Obama won 15 districts that congressional Republicans took while Romney was the victor in six districts where Obama prevailed.There was just one district in the country that Senator John Kerry won in 2004 that Romney won this time around - Pennsylvania's eighth congressional district.
The discrepancy between the congressional districts, which are drawn up according to popupulation and each contain about 647,000 voters, and the electoral college is accounted for by Romney amassing large numbers of congressional districts in 'red' - Republican - states, particularly across the South.
More... The moment Obama shook hands with the Korean rapper who sang 'kill those f****** Yankees' Is Hillary Clinton unbeatable in 2016? James Carville says '90 per cent of Democrats' want her as nominee Have you been naughty or nice, Mr President? The Obamas pose for adorable pictures with Santa's little helpers Obama and Boehner try to thrash out deal to end fiscal cliff deadlock as Republicans set to agree to higher taxesBut they also underline that the election was relatively close, with just a few hundred thousand votes in Florida, Virginia and Ohio - all relatively narrowly won by Obama - separating the two nominees.
In an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS last week, Stuart Stevens, Romney's chief strategist, paid tribute to the Obama campaign's achievement.
Knockout: Mitt Romney has spent his days since the election being pictured in more leisurely pursuits, such as watching the welterweight fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao title fight on Saturday Off course: Romney's chief strategist said at the weekend that Superstorm Sandy harmed Romney's chances, saying: 'A race like this is a lot like an NBA game and it`s all about ball control at the end''The President`s campaign did a great job getting their supporters out but also delivering a message to their supporters which is very key,' he said.
'I think that it was similar to the Bush campaign in that...there weren`t a lot of undecided voters...we spoke to our voters and got them out. But, look, they won we lost, they did a better job.'
Stevens also said that Hurricane Sandy had harmed Romney. 'After the storm I never had a good feeling,' he said. 'Not that the storm impacted things that much per se but these races, a race like this is a lot like an NBA game and it`s all about ball control at the end.
'And we went from , every incumbent I`ve ever defeated, I`ve been involved in, well you had to really prosecute an argument at the end. And we went from having these big rallies around the country to literally sitting in hotel rooms and there`s just nothing we could do about it.'
Romney loss has prompted a lot of soul searching among Republicans but Stevens cautioned not to overestimate the situation the party is in.
'The Republican Party has definite issues but they also have a lot of pluses,' he said. ' 'You know I come from the school that it`s easy to stand up on things for your side when things are going well...but it`s most important when things are not going well.
'And I think that it`s important to look at what we did, the campaign did right, Republicans did right and not get into a mindset that it was all wrong or disqualified by a loss because I don`t think that`s the case.'