COLUMBIA, S.C., (Reuters) – Republican U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich scrapped his way to victory
in South Carolina today as voters in the conservative state rejected frontrunner Mitt Romney’s pitch that he is the
best bet to fix a broken economy and defeat Democratic President Barack Obama.
Gingrich’s come-from-behind win upended a Republican nominating race that until this week appeared to be a coronation
for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and private-equity firm chief.
Riding a series of feisty debate performances, Gingrich captured the lingering unease of conservative voters who view
Romney’s moderate past and shifting policy stances with suspicion. Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives, argued that he would be able to better articulate the party’s conservative ideals in the Nov. 6 election.
Gingrich’s victory means that three different candidates have won the first three contests in the state-by-state battle
for the Republican presidential nomination to face Obama, a Democrat, on Nov. 6. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses on Jan.
3 and Romney won the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 10. U.S. television networks declared Gingrich the winner
shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT). “Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout
punch in Florida,” Gingrich wrote in a Twitter message. Florida’s Jan. 31 vote is the next up in the state-by-state
nominating contest.
South Carolina has been a tough state for Romney’s presidential ambitions. In his previous run for the White House
in 2008, Romney finished a poor fourth, with just 15 percent of the vote, behind winner and eventual Republican nominee John
McCain. McCain endorsed Romney in the current campaign. The race in the conservative southern state, known for
gloves-off politics, has been upended in recent days as the two candidates have tried to portray each other as untrustworthy.
