How Mitt Romney won the Florida primary
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and his wife Ann celebrates his Florida primary election win at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012.
/ AP Photo/Charles DharapakUpdated: 11:11 p.m. ET
Mitt Romney won a resounding victory in the Florida Republican primary on Tuesday, significantly slowing any momentum Newt Gingrich may have gained from his victory in South Carolina ten days earlier. The CBS News exit poll of Florida Republican primary voters showed that Romney forged a coalition of ideologically moderate voters, senior citizens and Latinos on the back of two impressive debate performances and an effective early voting campaign. Romney did particularly well among voters prioritizing the economy and defeating Barack Obama in November.
How Mitt Romney won the Florida primary
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Map: Keys to Romney's win in Florida
Republican Moderates Flexed Their Muscle
Gingrich won decisively in South Carolina on the strength of his support among very conservative voters. In Florida, the moderate wing of the Republican party pushed back, propelling Romney to victory on Tuesday. Thirty-one percent of Florida Republican primary voters indentified themselves as liberal or moderate. Romney won this group by a substantial margin, defeating Gingrich 59 percent to 20 percent. Romney also easily defeated Gingrich among somewhat conservative voters 52 percent to 32 percent. Together, this allowed him to easily offset Gingrich's advantage amongst the 33 percent of very conservative Republicans who preferred him to Romney 41 percent to 30 percent.
Appealed to Seniors
Florida's senior citizens also packed a powerful punch in the Republican primary on Tuesday, throwing their weight squarely behind Romney. Voters who were 65 years of age or older comprised a sizable 36 percent of the electorate, more than a third larger than the share they comprised in any of the preceding contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina. Romney won 51 percent of primary voters 65 years of age or older compared to only 34 percent for Gingrich.
It appears Florida's seniors were turned off by Gingrich's temperament and aggressive behavior. Barely half - 52 percent - of voters 65 years of age or older had a favorable view of Gingrich, compared to 79 percent of senior voters who had a favorable view of Romney. Moreover, a plurality of senior voters thought Gingrich ran the most unfair campaign of all the candidate, whereas a plurality of voters under 65 years of age thought Romney ran the most unfair campaign.
Top Choice Among Latinos
Romney did particularly well among Latino voters in the state. Latinos made up 14 percent of Florida Republican primary voters. Romney carried the group by a sizable margin, defeating Gingrich 54 percent to 29 percent. This was a dramatic improvement over his 2008 effort, when he secured only 14 percent of their support in losing the state to John McCain. Romney did well among both Florida's Cuban and non-Cuban communities. He bested Gingrich among Cuban voters 57 percent to 33 percent, and defeated him among non-Cuban Latino voters 51 percent to 23 percent.
Rebounded in Debates
The key to Gingrich's success in South Carolina - the campaign debates - proved to be a source of his downfall in Florida. Sixty-nine percent of Florida Republican primary voters said the recent debates were an important factor in their vote decision, even more than the 64 percent of South Carolinians who said they were key to their votes. Among Florida voters who cited the debates as important to their vote, they preferred Romney to Gingrich 42 percent to 34 percent, reversing the sizable advantage Gingrich had amongst this group in South Carolina.
Top Pick Among Early Deciders
Many Florida Republican primary voters made up their minds well before the candidates began visiting the state over the last week. Forty percent of voters made their decision more than a month ago, a far greater share of early deciders than were found in the first three contests. Among early deciders, Romney was the clear choice, topping Gingrich 54 percent to 27 percent.
Romney's campaign organization targeted these early deciders and urged many of the them to turn in their ballots well before Election Day. According to Republican primary officials, more than 600,000 Floridians voted early, casting their ballots in an eight-day window from Saturday, January 21, the date of the South Carolina primary, to January 28. These early voters skewed heavily for Romney, awarding 51 percent of their ballots compared to 33 percent for Gingrich.
Full Florida primary resultsFlorida exit poll
Republican delegate scorecard
Full state-by-state GOP primary results
Most Likely to Defeat Beat Obama
Florida Republican primary voters placed considerable importance on Romney's perceived electability. Nearly half of them - 45 percent - indicated that the ability to defeat President Obama was the candidate quality that mattered most in their vote decision, compared to only 21 percent who said the right experience, 17 percent who said a candidate's strong moral character and 14 percent who said being a true conservative. Among those who cited defeating Mr. Obama as the most important candidate quality, a whopping 58 percent voted for Romney compared to only 33 percent for Gingrich.
Similarly, when voters were asked explicitly which candidate would be most the likely to defeat Mr. Obama regardless of who they supported, they overwhelming chose Romney by a nearly two-to-one margin over Gingrich. Of those voters who thought he had the best chance of winning, they overwhelmingly preferred Romney to Gingrich 76 percent to 9 percent.
Preferred Choice to Handle Economy
The economy was the most important issue in the Florida primary, as it has been in the three preceding contents in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Sixty-two percent of voters cited the economy as the issue that mattered most in determining their vote choice. Romney was the clear choice among these economic voters, receiving 51 percent of their support, compared to 31 percent for Gingrich.
Romney did much better among voters with financial struggles than he had in previous contests. For the first time, Romney won the support of voters from households earning less than $50,000 annually, besting Gingrich 44 percent to 31 percent. Even more impressively, he defeated Gingrich by four points among the 28 percent of voters who said they were falling behind financially - a group he lost to Gingrich by 19 percentage points in South Carolina - narrowly defeating him 41 percent to 37 percent.
Mitt Romney scores big win in Florida primary
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Ron Paul sets sights on Nevada caucuses
Poll results discussed in this article are based on a National Election Pool exit poll conducted by Edison Media Research. Interviews were conducted with 2739 Republican primary voters as they exited precincts around Florida. The margin of error for the poll is +/-3 percentage points.
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Won't matter - he'll still be a Mormon against a Christian in that General Election!
OBAMA 2012 : )
That was the slogan that I read on a Florida license plate of an SUV in a Von's parking lot in Los Angeles.
I couldn't help noticing the disconnect.
Coral reefs in Florida are endangered because global climate change. Sea water absorbs most of our carbon emissions, including the carbon emissions of the Florida SUV. As a result, the ocean is gradually turning into an giant pool of acid - which is rapidly dissolving Florida's coral reefs. In addition to coral reefs, the acidity of the will destroy most sea life as well as Florida's fishing industry.
I also can't help wondering how much of Florida is on sea level. What will happen when the oceans start to rise? What happens when sea water seeps into fresh water wet lands or into Florida's ground water? And when will this happen?
If we are serious about saving the coral reefs in Florida and elsewhere, we must drastically reduce carbon emission NOW.
Yet the Republicans without exception insist that global warming does not exist.
By voting Republican, the people of Florida are not just signing a death warrant for their coral reefs. They are signing a death warrant for their state as well.
Only if your were kept as my slave...I would have taken you to the Taliban caves,since you are nave,I am so sorry for that Dave....lolololollololololololololol
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Demented-Zions, you sound like you could be a lot of fun. Would you be interested in getting together sometime???? I have a small room in my basement that I call my "rumpus room"...I think you might be interested in seeing it. Thoughts?
That's about how much the average senior citizen has saved since so-called Obama care has gone into effect.
Has Mitt Romney or anyone in the GOP else told senior citizens that they will once again have to choose between their meds and food if the GOP takes power? Has Mitt or any one else in the GOP told senior citizens how much they will have to pay for health insurance once the GOP eliminates Medicare?
And what happens to senior citizens who discover that no private health insurance company will accept them because of pre-existing conditions?
Mitt and the rest of the GOP thinks that senior citizens are stupid and senile. While they may be able to fool a few gullible geezers in Florida and South Carolina - they can't fool me.
*Source; ThinkProgress.org
-Even his "negative" ads aren't really that negative. More like simply pointing out Newt truths about his past. Most of the ads on his website are pretty positive too. The one that shows him and his wife when they were younger is pretty cool. They have been together a long time and done a lot. That says something.
-When Romney tries and talks negative he appears to have a slight hard time with it. Like he's not really used to being that way and has to force himself to be like that.
-Some people knock Mitt for being Mormon. I've been in the Las Vegas area for some time and although I'm not Mormon, I can say that there are quite a few here and to be honest they are some of the nicest most courteous people I've ever met. Really wonderful people. If some people have a problem with people truly being nice then I don't know what to say about that. I don't have any problem with Mitt being able to pull the trigger on somebody either as the CiC. I think he's more than capable of doing what has to be done. Just saying.
-Let's be 110% Honest about exactly what the Presidency is capable of achieving. It's 1/3 of the Govt. It can set the tone for some things but Congress holds a lot of the keys. If Congress doesn't back you up, your not going to effectively govern very well. One thing that is critical for any politician is compromise. I think Romney can do it.
-I don't think Newt can compromise. He's stepped on too many toes and too set in his Washington insider ways. He's PO'd so many people when he walks into a room everyone is on the defensive. That's no way to govern. Newt also has no problem auto-dumping on anyone. He seems to naturally be nasty. Most of the ads I've seen by Newt are negative and most of the time I've seen Newt speak on TV (going back decades) he's been nasty He's Mr. Serial Nasty Politician, Not Mr. New Nice Guy Politician. He's been running his career that way a very long time. Don't get me started about the GOPACK memo.
I don't know what people fear about Mitt. He's a smart guy that has what it takes. Some people call him a moderate and not a staunch Conservative for compromising to get things done. If that's what people want to call him then so be it. I'd rather have someone in there that can get something done than cause gridlock. I'd rather have a moderate that makes things happen than a gridlocked hard core conservative that won't compromise on anything.
Really it's going to come down to the highest bidder