Video: US election 2012: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich make final push before Florida primary Speaking in Jacksonville, Newt Gingrich said he was confident about the Florida primary, stressing that rival Mitt Romney's negative advertising campaign targeting him would not prevent his victory at the polls. I'm very excited, I could feel it over the last three days as we begin to close the gap, just as we had in South Carolina there was this huge wave of dishonest Romney ads, for a little bit people backed up and went wow. Frankly if all that stuff were true, I wouldn't vote for myself," the former House Speaker told supporters. Also campaigning in Jacksonville, Mr Romney continued his attack on the former House speaker, while touting his own performance in last week's televised debates. These debates have gone pretty well. Speaker Gingrich wasn't very happy with the debates though. He said after the first debate he didn't well because the crowd was so quiet, it threw him off. The second debate he said he didn't do so well because the crowd was so loud. I think the real reason he hasn't done so well connecting with the people of Florida is the people actually saw him in those debates and listened to his background and experience and they learned for instance that he was paid $1.6 million to be a lobbyist for Freddie Mac. And they said that's not what we want in the White House. Mr Romney's lead over his main rival edged up to 12 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos online poll results on Sunday, as the former Massachusetts governor's front-runner status stabilised and Mr Gingrich continued to slip behind. The poll results, similar to those of several other surveys, illustrated Mr Romney's remarkable turnaround since South Carolina's primary on January 21, which Mr Gingrich won in a surprise upset. With 19 million people, Florida is the most populous of the presidential swing states. Florida's winner-take-all 50 delegates - more than New Hampshire and South Carolina combined - will give the victor a huge boost towards the 1,144 needed to win the Republican presidential nomination.