Washington, Jan 22: Newt Gingrich has scored a crushing double-digit victory over Mitt Romney in the South Carolina Republican Presidential primary, stripping him of his front-runner status and breaking wide open the race to choose a challenger to incumbent Barack Obama in November polls. With 99 per cent of the precincts counted, 68-year-old Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, had secured 41 per cent of the votes compared to 27 per cent for Romney. Given that for decades the South Carolina Republican primary winner had ended up bagging the party's presidential nomination, the result for yesterday's primary came as a big boost for Gingrich. At the same time it was a big setback to 64-year-old Romney, former Massachusetts Governor who was leading the State till a week before and was looking forward to seal his nomination with a win there. While it would take time for official results to be declared, Romney, seeing the writing on the wall, conceded defeat and congratulated Gingrich for his victory. Tonight I want to congratulate, of course, Speaker Gingrich and my fellow Republicans in a hard-fought campaign in South Carolina. We're now three contests into a long primary season. This is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for, Romney said at a post-election rally. Now this race is getting to be even more interesting, said Romney, who won the New Hampshire primary and narrowly lost Iowa Caucus to Rick Santorum, ex-Pennsylvania Senator. In his victory speech, Gingrich called Obama a weak President and was highly critical of his record on the foreign policy front. President Obama is a President so weak that he makes Jimmy Carter look strong.Gingrich, who was earlier this week trailing behind Romney by double digit in opinion polls, came back from behind to trounce him. He appeared confident that he will get the Republican Party nomination to challenge Obama. Yesterday, Santorum came a distant third with 18 per cent of the votes. Ron Paul, the Texas Congressman, came fourth and last with 13 per cent votes. Gingrich's victory came just 10 days after his fifth-place finish in New Hampshire left the impression that his candidature was all but dead. Mr Gingrich rode to victory by winning a plurality among a wide swath of important Republican voting blocs, outperforming the rest of the four-person field among evangelical Christians and Tea Party supporters, men and even women, despite the publicity given to problems in his first two marriages, The New York Times said. The Republican presidential candidates now move to Florida which goes to primary on January 31.
News reports and pollsters said that the manner in which Gingrich responded to the allegation by his second ex-wife that he had asked for an open marriage in which he could have both a wife and a mistress, has gone in the favour of the former Speaker. When asked by a voter about his past mistakes, Gingrich had said such questions were inevitable but added that he had long since sought forgiveness.
News reports and pollsters said that the manner in which Gingrich responded to the allegation by his second ex-wife that he had asked for an open marriage in which he could have both a wife and a mistress, has gone in the favour of the former Speaker. When asked by a voter about his past mistakes, Gingrich had said such questions were inevitable but added that he had long since sought forgiveness.