US election 2012: Mitt Romney aims to wrap up Republican nomination by end of month Mr Romney won 39 per cent of the vote, 16 percentage points more than Ron Paul, a libertarian Texas congressman, and a greater share than John McCain, the eventual Republican nominee, in 2008. Jon Huntsman, Mr Obama's former ambassador to China, finished third with 17, after skipping Iowa and staking his entire campaign on the state. With no candidates dropping out, the anti-Romney vote remains divided between a fractured field, leaving the favourite with no obvious rival. Dr Paul's second-place finish, after surviving a last-minute surge by Mr Huntsman, gave his loyal supporters hope of re-invigorating his campaign after a disappointing third in Iowa. The scale of backing for the 76-year-old 'Father of the Tea Party," who among other extreme positions wants to slash $1 trillion in public spending, abolish five government agencies and scrap all foreign aid, however highlights dissatisfaction with other mainstream candidates among party activists. Mr Romney began touring South Carolina as aides announced he raised $24 million (£16 million) in the last quarter of 2011, bringing his total haul to $56 million (£36 million) - far more than any rival. He dismissed claims that the southern state's Christian conservatives might punish him for taking moderate stances on abortion and gay rights while a Senate candidate in Massachusetts in the 1990s. "There are people who want to elect a commander-in-chief," he said in a television interview. They're not worried about electing a pastor-in-chief. That's not what I'm running for. Mike Murphy, a Republican consultant who worked for Mr McCain among several other leading Republicans, said: "Romney's Iowa and New Hampshire wins give him enough strength that I think he could take a second place loss in South Carolina and still win Florida and beyond." Despite South Carolina looming on January 21, Mr Romney will today hold a major rally in Palm Beach, Florida. He yesterday released Spanish-language television advertisements in the state in an attempt to recruit Hispanic voters who voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama in 2008. Facing a bombardment of attacks on the subject from his rivals, Mr Romney pledged to focus relentlessly on job-creation in both states, which have suffered more acutely from the economic crisis than Iowa and New Hampshire. A half-hour film being broadcast by allies of former Speaker Newt Gingrich - who finished fourth in New Hampshire - accuses Mr Romney of being a "corporate raider" who "looted" firms to make a $250 million (£160 million) fortune while head of Bain Capital, a corporate buy-out company. Campaigning in South Carolina, Rick Perry, the Texas governor, who finished last in New Hampshire with a humiliating one per cent of the vote, said Mr Romney and his staff had "picked the flesh off the carcase" of a local firm. Mr Romney said yesterday that his rivals" single-digit results in New Hampshire showed that "this kind of attack on free enterprise is simply not gaining traction for them." In his speech on Tuesday night, he warned his party colleagues against joining Mr Obama in the "politics of envy." "We have seen desperate Republicans join him in putting free enterprise on trial," he said. It's a mistake for our party and our nation. Mr Romney said the US should be lifted up "by desire to succeed, not dragged down by resentment of success."