Mormons boost Romney momentum in Nevada With the wind at his back after a convincing victory this week in the Florida primary, the Las Vegas office building housing Mitt Romney's Nevada campaign headquarters makes an unlikely setting for the next phase of his push for the Republican nomination. A physiotherapy practice shares the building, which explained the stream of ailing and injured patients stumbling through the doors this week. With his campaign now limping too, it might have been more appropriate for Newt Gingrich's team to be sharing the office but instead there was an abundance of Romney 2012 volunteers bearing posters, T-shirts and plenty of enthusiasm. The momentum is clearly with Mr Romney, who is ahead in state polls and won the caucus there easily when he ran for president in 2008. Four years ago, he had the state's large Mormon population to thank. Mormons represent about 9 per cent of the Nevada population but accounted for 25 per cent of the participants in the Republican caucus. Approximately nine out of 10 Mormon caucus goers in 2008 backed Mr Romney. As a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Mr Romney remains popular among Mormons in Nevada and their support could again prove crucial on Saturday. The latest polls show him with a commanding lead. The state forms part of the so-called "Mormon corridor" that spans much of the western US: adherents to the religion settled in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and in parts of California in the latter half of the 19th century and since then their populations have soared. At the LDS Institute of Religion on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, Mormon students canvassed by the Financial Times were unflinching in their support for Mr Romney. Jeff Zemp, a 26-year old studying finance, said a Mormon in the White House could change America much in the way that the election of its first Catholic president did in 1960. "It would be a JFK moment," he said. If Mr Romney won the nomination "it would be a real turnround ... especially after all the negative stuff four years ago [in the last Republican primary] when there was a lot of slander about what LDS stood for." "He would bring a lot of publicity for the church, whatever he did," added David Riggs, a mechanical engineering student. Mr Romney was popular among Mormons, he added, but they would not vote in one bloc. Our church encourages us to be politically active and study the issues on our own and vote for what we feel is best. Some Republicans, particularly southern evangelical Christians, have expressed disquiet about Mr Romney's faith: indeed, he was comfortably beaten by Mr Gingrich in the South Carolina primary, a state with a high concentration of evangelicals. In Texas, one in five voters said they would not vote for a Mormon candidate even if they agreed with his policies, according to a poll by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune newspaper. But in Nevada, Mr Romney is in comfortable territory. Mormon settlers were among the first people to live in Las Vegas well before gambling was legalised in 1931 and Mormon financiers have developed deep ties with the city's casino industry. In the 1950s, the Bank of Las Vegas, run at the time by E. Parry Thomas, a prominent Mormon banker who would go on to become a Romney supporter, provided the funds that fuelled the city's first casino boom. "This is generally Romney country ... there are so many LDS [members] here," says Heidi Harris, a conservative talk radio host, and an evangelical Christian, who is based in Las Vegas. There is none of the hostility to Mormons in Nevada that might exist elsewhere, she says. People who aren't Mormon know Mormons, they work with them or they are their friends or neighbours. Mr Romney's advisers say his appeal goes well beyond his faith: he first came to broader attention in Nevada after turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics in nearby Utah. Plus, there are high-profile Mormons in each of the main political parties: Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader hails from Nevada and is an LDS member while on the other side of the aisle Orin Hatch, the Republican senator from Utah, and Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah are also members of the church. Yet there are some natural synergies between the teachings of the faith and conservative ideology. "People in LDS tend to be conservative in their views and they like small government," said Tyler Hansen, a student at UNLV and an LDS member. The church emphasises self-reliance. This has not escaped Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican, who finished third behind Mr Romney in Nevada four years ago. He is actively targeting the Mormon vote. A Paul campaign press release quotes Craig Richards, an LDS member, who refers to the high regard with which Mormons hold the US constitution. The constitution is "an inspired document," said Mr Richards. Mr Paul "is the only candidate running for president who is ... following the constitution." But Mr Paul, Rick Santorum and Mr Gingrich - who is being backed by Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas-based billionaire owner of the Venetian hotel and casino - have their work cut if they are to overhaul Mr Romney in Nevada. "He's polling very well among all LDS members in the state," said John Tuman, chair of the political science department at UNLV. Even those who are registered Democrats.