Mitt Romney wins Florida primary

Feb 1 2012

Mitt Romney has won the Florida Republican presidential primary, early results have showed.

The former Massachusetts governor took a commanding lead over Newt Gingrich in the winner-take-all balloting, which is worth 50 delegates at the party's national nominating convention. With nearly half the precincts counted, Mr Romney was ahead 47% to Mr Gingrich's 31%.

Former House of Representatives speaker Mr Gingrich earlier vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome in Florida.

About half of the state's primary voters say the most important factor for them is backing a candidate who can defeat President Barack Obama in November, according to early exit poll results conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.

With his win, Mr Romney has recovered the political momentum he had lost after Mr Gingrich's victory in the January 21 South Carolina primary. Florida was by far the largest of the first four nominating contests.

The win gives Mr Romney all 50 of Florida's delegates to the Republican National Convention in August. A candidate will need 1,144 delegates to become the nominee.

"Thank you FL!" an exuberant Mr Romney tweeted minutes after the race was called. "While we celebrate this victory, we must not forget what this election is really about: defeating Barack Obama."

Two other candidates, former senator Rick Santorum and congressman Ron Paul, remain in the race, but they conceded Florida to their rivals and remain long shots for the nomination. Mr Santorum had 13% and Mr Paul 7%.

Mr Romney has been the front-runner for most of the Republican campaign even as a series of challengers have soared in the polls, only to quickly fade. He narrowly lost the first contest, the Iowa caucuses, to Mr Santorum in a race so close that he was initially declared the winner. He then easily won in New Hampshire.

But Mr Gingrich countered with the upset victory in South Carolina, winning over conservatives who saw Mr Romney as too moderate. Mr Gingrich's fiery attacks on Mr Obama and America's media "elite" struck a chord with the state's conservative electorate, even as much of the Republican establishment feared Mr Gingrich was too erratic to become the party's nominee.