Story highlights Romney to get Secret Service protection, a source tells CNN 
 
 Mitt Romney gets Florida's 50 convention delegates, the biggest primary haul so far 
 
 Tuesday's winner will get the GOP nomination, predicts Florida Sen. Rubio 
 
 Gingrich's momentum dropped as Romney went on the offensive 
 
 Mitt Romney headed west Wednesday to begin campaigning in Minnesota and Nevada after cementing his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination with a solid victory in Florida's bitterly contested primary. 
 
 Romney had 46% compared to 32% for Newt Gingrich, 13% for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and 7% for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, according to the Florida Department of State website. 
 
 The victory gave Romney all 50 of Florida's convention delegates, and more importantly, new momentum heading into a series of caucuses and primaries building up to Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will hold nominating contests. 
 
 In a sign of Romney's new prominence, a federal law enforcement source told CNN that Romney will receive Secret Service protection "within days." 
 
 Appearing to cheers of "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt" just 30 minutes after the last polls closed, the former Massachusetts governor thanked his supporters for what he called a "great victory." 
 
 A Florida campaign of vicious personal attacks between Romney and Gingrich, his closest competitor, raised questions about whether the process would damage the eventual winner when it comes time to run against President Barack Obama in November. 
 
 "A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us, and we will win," Romney said to cheers. 
 
 Reflecting the bitter campaign, Gingrich refrained from congratulating Romney when he later spoke to supporters holding signs that read "46 states to go" in reference to the early stage of the GOP nominating process. 
 
 Instead, the former House speaker tried to frame the Florida result as a narrowing of the field, saying it was "now clear this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate." 
 
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 Santorum said Tuesday night that the Florida result showed Gingrich was unable to build on his previous victory, and conservatives were coalescing around Santorum's candidacy as the viable right-wing alternative to the more moderate Romney. 
 
 "Newt Gingrich had his opportunity. He came out of the state of South Carolina, he came out with a big win and a lot of money. He said, 'I'm going to be the conservative alternative. I'm going to be the anti-Mitt'," Santorum said. "It didn't work. He became the issue. We can't allow our nominee to be the issue in the campaign." 
 
 Santorum also told CNN his campaign raised almost $4.5 million in January in what he called a fundraising surge. 
 
 Paul, meanwhile, said he was focusing on upcoming caucuses in Maine and other states where his enthusiastic support base can generate more convention delegates. So far, he noted, he was in third place in delegates, adding "that's what really counts, and we've only just gotten started." 
 
 No candidate so far has more than 10% of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the August convention. 
 
 According to exit poll information, Romney led in most categories in Florida to show his appeal to Republican voters who said their main concern was choosing a candidate who can defeat Obama. 
 
 Romney gained significant ground in the Latino community, carrying Hispanics by 23 points. In the 2008 Florida primary, Romney lost Hispanics to eventual GOP nominee Sen. John McCain by 40 points. 
 
 In particular, Romney carried Cuban-Americans -- a vital constituency for Republicans in Florida against Obama -- by 24 points. 
 
 He lost to Gingrich only among the most hardcore elements of the GOP base -- voters who described themselves as very conservative and evangelical or born-again. However, Romney ran strongly among women voters, getting 51% to 29% for Gingrich, indicating that Gingrich's history of three marriages, two divorces and infidelity might be harming him. 
 
 Final polls closed at 8 p.m. ET and Romney jumped out to a strong early lead, buoyed by solid support among more than 632,000 voters who cast absentee or early ballots. His double-digit victory blunted any momentum Gingrich gained from his January 21 victory in South Carolina, the previous primary. 
 
 Both Romney and Gingrich focused their speeches Tuesday night on the ultimate goal -- taking on Obama in November. 
 
 Romney listed what he called the differing ideologies between himself and the president, promising to balance the budget without raising taxes and saying "together we will build an America where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker." 
 
 "The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurance government will always be the solution," Romney said. "If this election is a bidding war for who can promise the most goodies and the most benefits, I'm not your president. You have that president today." 
 
 Gingrich pledged to compete in every contest in the nomination process, and to repeal Obama policies hated by conservatives -- such as health care reform and Wall Street reform -- on his first day in office. 
 
 "This is the most important election of your lifetime," Gingrich said, adding: "If Barack Obama gets re-elected, it will be a disaster for the United States of America. You can't imagine how radical he'll be in a second term." 
 
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 Analysts and observers said a Romney victory Tuesday would be important and could be decisive. 
 
 "I think the winner of Florida is in all likelihood going to be the nominee of our party," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN Tuesday . "Florida is a mini America." 
 
 GOP strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos said a Romney victory would not automatically end the Repubican nomination campaign. 
 
 "With a win, Romney puts the nomination firmly in his grip. But it appears Gingrich and Santorum will keep trying to rip it from his hand," said Castellanos, who was a Romney media adviser in 2008 but is not taking sides this year. 
 
 Gingrich stormed into Florida 10 days earlier on a roll off of his double-digit victory over Romney and the rest of the field in the South Carolina primary. 
 
 His momentum quickly faded after Romney's campaign went on the offensive, turning in two strong debate performances in the Sunshine State and unleashing a barrage of ads targeting Gingrich. 
 
 Negative ads accounted for 92% of political ads airing in Florida over the last week -- a record rate for political campaigns , according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks advertising content and spending. 
 
 "I spent much of my academic career telling reporters, 'Relax, this is not the most negative campaign ever,' " CMAG President Ken Goldstein said. "Well, this IS the most negative campaign ever." 
 
 Romney told reporters Tuesday that he had learned his lesson from his South Carolina loss. 
 
 "If you're attacked, I'm not going to just sit back," he told reporters in Tampa, repeating a refrain he's used regularly recently. "I'm going to fight back and fight back hard." 
 
 On the day before the primary, Gingrich accused Romney of dishonesty but conceded the wave of attack ads had been effective. 
 
 "Frankly if all that stuff were true I wouldn't vote for myself," Gingrich said in Jacksonville Monday , referring to what he called "dishonest" Romney ads. 
 
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 He later told a crowd in Pensacola that "we will only win if the American people decide that they are sick and tired of the New York and Washington establishment thinking that we are dumb enough to let them try to buy an election by telling us things that we all know are just plain not true." 
 
 The Romney campaign and an independent super PAC supporting his bid have greatly outspent Gingrich and pro-Gingrich super PACs on ad buys in Florida. 
 
 Gingrich "has been flailing around a bit trying to go after me for one thing or the other," Romney said later Monday to a crowd in Dunedin. "You just watch it and shake your head. It has been kind of painfully revealing to watch." 
 
 While Romney and Gingrich were in Florida on Tuesday night to watch election returns, Santorum and Paul, knowing they're out of the running for the 50 delegates, have moved on to the next contests. 
 
 Santorum campaigned in Colorado and Nevada on Tuesday, while Paul was in Maine over the weekend and was spending Tuesday in Colorado and Nevada. 
 
 Nevada's caucuses take place Saturday, when Maine starts its week-long caucuses. 
 
 Minnesota and Colorado hold their caucuses on February 7, the same day that Missouri holds its non-binding primary. 
 
 In Lone Tree, Colorado, Santorum called on voters to consider questions that have arisen about the character and discipline of Gingrich, his main rival for support from conservatives. 
 
 "It's an issue of trust," Santorum said when a man at his Tuesday event challenged the character of Gingrich, who has been divorced twice and cited for a violation of House ethics rules. 
 
 Personal mistakes don't automatically disqualify someone from seeking high office, Santorum said, noting Gingrich has sought forgiveness. 
 
 "I don't question his sincerity of his repentance, but as I have said many times there is two areas that are open for concern and that is -- the issue of trust and whether someone who has a record of that is someone you feel comfortable has truly changed and you forgive them," Santorum continued. "That doesn't mean they necessarily have changed their ways." 
 
 The Paul and Santorum campaigns are strategically looking to states in which they can pick up delegates. 
 
 "Ultimately they're conceding in advance in Florida, while trying to shore up future states," said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist and Republican National Committee communications director. "Unfortunately for Paul and Santorum, that generally has not been a winning strategy. It's not being done out of a position of strength." 
 
 Romney's convincing win in Florida, coupled with an unfriendly calendar for Gingrich in February with friendlier Super Tuesday states more than a month away, could put Gingrich in a bind. 
 
 "February doesn't look good for Newt Gingrich. He'll lose Nevada, with its large LDS (Mormon) population and lose Michigan (February 28), where Romney's father was governor. Newt will have a long march across the desert with no debates to revive his campaign," Castellanos said. 
 
 "Newt has to hold his breath all the way to Super Tuesday, March 6th, raise 30 or 40 million dollars for advertising and fix his problem with female voters to catch Romney. Those are grandiose problems, even for Gingrich." ||||| March 2, 2012 - Ohio GOP Race Going Down To The Wire, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Santorum At 35% To Romney's 31% 
 
 
 
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 The Republican presidential face-off in Ohio is too close to call as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has 35 percent of likely Republican primary voters to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's 31 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. 
 
 
 
 
 
 This compares to a 36 - 29 percent Santorum lead in a February 27 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll, the day before the hotly-contested Michigan primary. 
 
 
 
 
 
 In today's survey, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has 17 percent, with 12 percent for Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Among voters who name a candidate, 34 percent say they still might change their mind by Tuesday. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Santorum leads Romney 34 - 28 percent among men and 37 - 33 percent among women, 40 - 27 percent among self-described conservatives and 42 - 25 percent among Tea Party members. Romney leads Santorum 46 - 26 percent among self-described moderates. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "At this point, the Buckeye State is too close to call and is clearly a two-man race between Sen. Rick Santorum and Gov. Mitt Romney," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "A third of the electorate say they still might change their mind. With five days until Super Tuesday, they certainly will be exposed to enough negative television ads to provide fodder for those who might want to switch - or switch off." 
 
 
 
 
 
 From February 29 - March 1, Quinnipiac University surveyed 517 Ohio likely Republican primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia and the nation as a public service and for research. For more data or RSS feed- http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, call (203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. If the Republican primary for President were being held today, and the candidates were: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul, for whom would you vote? (If undecided) As of today, do you lean more toward Gingrich, Romney, Santorum or Paul? (Table includes leaners and early voters) 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS.......................... WhtBrnAgnEv TEA PARTY Tot Men Wom Con Mod Yes No Yes No Gingrich 17% 18% 15% 18% 13% 21% 13% 22% 13% Romney 31 28 33 27 46 23 37 25 32 Santorum 35 34 37 40 26 40 35 42 35 Paul 12 14 9 10 11 9 9 8 14 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - - - - - - - DK/NA 6 6 5 5 5 7 6 3 6 COLLEGE DEG AGE IN YEARS..... ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME Yes No 18-49 50-64 65+ <30K 30-50 50-100 >100 Gingrich 14% 18% 16% 15% 17% 15% 19% 20% 10% Romney 37 27 25 30 40 33 29 28 33 Santorum 34 36 37 40 27 32 34 36 42 Paul 11 12 18 11 5 13 11 13 10 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - - - - - - 1 DK/NA 4 6 3 4 10 7 7 3 3 
 
 TREND: If the Republican primary for President were being held today, and the candidates were: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul, for whom would you vote? (If undecided) As of today, do you lean more toward Gingrich, Romney, Santorum or Paul? (Table includes leaners and early voters) 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS Mar 02 Feb 27 Feb 15 2012 2012 2012 Gingrich 17 17 20 Romney 31 29 29 Santorum 35 36 36 Paul 12 11 9 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - DK/NA 6 6 6 
 
 1a. (Candidate choice given q1) Is your mind made up, or do you think you might change your mind before the election? 
 
 CANDIDATE CHOSEN Q1.... CANDIDATE CHOICE Tot NG MR RS Mind made up 65% 50% 65% 69% Might change 34 48 34 30 DK/NA 1 1 - 1 
 
 TREND: (Candidate choice given q1) Is your mind made up, or do you think you might change your mind before the election? 
 
 CHOSE CANDIDATE Q1 Mar 02 Feb 27 Feb 15 2012 2012 2012 Mind made up 65 52 48 Might change 34 45 50 DK/NA 1 3 3 
 
 2. Is your opinion of Newt Gingrich favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS.......................... WhtBrnAgnEv TEA PARTY Tot Men Wom Con Mod Yes No Yes No Favorable 48% 49% 48% 56% 34% 59% 44% 62% 42% Unfavorable 38 41 36 33 49 28 43 31 44 Hvn't hrd enough 11 9 13 9 15 10 11 5 12 REFUSED 2 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 2 COLLEGE DEG AGE IN YEARS..... ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME Yes No 18-49 50-64 65+ <30K 30-50 50-100 >100 Favorable 52% 46% 45% 51% 47% 46% 50% 48% 55% Unfavorable 38 38 37 39 42 38 30 43 40 Hvn't hrd enough 9 12 17 9 6 13 17 7 6 REFUSED 1 3 1 2 6 3 3 2 - 
 
 TREND: Is your opinion of Newt Gingrich favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS Mar 02 Feb 27 Feb 15 2012 2012 2012 Favorable 48 49 49 Unfavorable 38 36 34 Hvn't hrd enough 11 12 16 REFUSED 2 3 2 
 
 3. Is your opinion of Mitt Romney favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS.......................... WhtBrnAgnEv TEA PARTY Tot Men Wom Con Mod Yes No Yes No Favorable 53% 55% 50% 56% 58% 47% 61% 61% 50% Unfavorable 34 31 37 33 27 39 26 29 37 Hvn't hrd enough 11 12 11 10 14 12 11 7 12 REFUSED 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 1 COLLEGE DEG AGE IN YEARS..... ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME Yes No 18-49 50-64 65+ <30K 30-50 50-100 >100 Favorable 64% 47% 53% 51% 57% 47% 50% 57% 60% Unfavorable 30 36 33 38 28 39 39 27 33 Hvn't hrd enough 6 14 13 9 11 12 10 14 5 REFUSED - 3 - 2 4 2 2 1 3 
 
 TREND: Is your opinion of Mitt Romney favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS Mar 02 Feb 27 Feb 15 2012 2012 2012 Favorable 53 52 61 Unfavorable 34 32 25 Hvn't hrd enough 11 13 12 REFUSED 2 4 2 
 
 4. Is your opinion of Rick Santorum favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS.......................... WhtBrnAgnEv TEA PARTY Tot Men Wom Con Mod Yes No Yes No Favorable 57% 59% 55% 64% 43% 60% 58% 67% 54% Unfavorable 24 24 24 21 31 17 25 21 26 Hvn't hrd enough 17 14 20 14 22 20 15 10 19 REFUSED 2 2 2 1 4 3 1 2 2 COLLEGE DEG AGE IN YEARS..... ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME Yes No 18-49 50-64 65+ <30K 30-50 50-100 >100 Favorable 59% 56% 59% 60% 51% 52% 53% 61% 67% Unfavorable 24 24 19 25 28 28 21 20 23 Hvn't hrd enough 16 17 22 14 16 17 25 16 10 REFUSED 1 3 - 2 5 3 - 3 - 
 
 TREND: Is your opinion of Rick Santorum favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS Mar 02 Feb 27 Feb 15 2012 2012 2012 Favorable 57 59 62 Unfavorable 24 16 7 Hvn't hrd enough 17 24 31 REFUSED 2 1 - 
 
 5. Is your opinion of Ron Paul favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? 
 
 LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS.......................... WhtBrnAgnEv TEA PARTY Tot Men Wom Con Mod Yes No Yes No Favorable 32% 33% 30% 31% 30% 25% 33% 28% 34% Unfavorable 42 46 38 46 35 44 44 48 42 Hvn't hrd enough 24 19 29 20 32 29 21 19 23 REFUSED 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 5 2 COLLEGE DEG AGE IN YEARS..... ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME Yes No 18-49 50-64 65+ <30K 30-50 50-100 >100 Favorable 32% 32% 31% 35% 28% 32% 31% 35% 28% Unfavorable 50 38 40 42 44 34 41 43 55 Hvn't hrd enough 17 27 29 19 23 33 28 19 15 REFUSED 2 3 1 4 5 1 1 4 2 
 
 TREND: Is your opinion of Ron Paul favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? ||||| Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images. 
 
 Mitt Romney won by vast margins on the two key questions of the election 
 
 Newt Gingrich promised Florida voters the moon and he crashed to earth. Mitt Romney won the crucial state big with 46 percent of the vote, beating Gingrich by 14 points. In Brevard County, where Gingrich's pledge to build a lunar colony might have wooed voters who worked in the space industry, Romney won by 7 points. 
 
 Inevitability restored. Romney has won snowbird victories in New Hampshire and Florida. He won Florida with almost 50 percent of the vote, a key psychological threshold for a candidate whose detractors once said he had a ceiling of 25 percent. Romney now rolls on with bragging rights: He dominated the biggest contest to date in a state that is representative of the Republican coalition and that is the largest contested prize in the general election. And he rolls on with wheels that are made of money. As the Florida polls were closing, his campaign announced that it had raised $24 million in the fourth quarter to Gingrich's nearly $10 million. Romney has $20 million in the bank he can use. 
 
 Romney won by vast margins on the two key questions of the election. According to exit polls, among the 45 percent of voters who wanted someone who was in the best position to beat Obama, Romney won 58 percent to Gingrich’s 32 percent. Among the 62 percent for whom the economy was the number one issue, Romney won 52 percent to Gingrich’s 29. 
 
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 Romney's strongest argument will be that he was able to win with conservatives. Though both candidates are insiders, Newt Gingrich tried to make Romney's support within the party a liability. He tried to turn the race into a battle between the establishment and the grassroots. It was people power versus money power, said Gingrich (whose campaign has been aided by $10 million in donations from Sheldon Adelson). Exit polls suggest that the argument didn't work. Romney won by four percentage points over Gingrich among the 65 percent of voters who say they are supporters of the Tea Party. He won by a similar margin among the 65 percent who call themselves conservatives. Gingrich won those who considered themselves "very conservative" and those who "strongly identify" with the Tea Party. 
 
 Romney even challenged Gingrich in north Florida, a conservative stronghold. Gingrich’s argument for continuing his campaign—which he pledged to do tonight—is that he enjoys strong support in the American South. But the panhandle mirrors the South as much as any portion of Florida. 
 
 Negative ads worked. Romney dumped $16 million of negative ads into the state. Gingrich said he thought Romney’s aggression would backfire. It didn't work. Voters thought both candidates aired unfair ads, but of those that thought so of Romney, a far larger proportion voted for him anyway. Also, in the last three days before the election, late-deciding voters went with Romney, suggesting that instead of penalizing him as Gingrich had hoped, they rushed into his arms. 
 
 The contest coming into Florida was between Romney's money and organization and Gingrich's momentum. Money and organization won out. Romney was on the airwaves beating on Gingrich in early January when there wasn't much competition. This might have locked in voters. Florida voters made up their minds earlier than in other states. (Only 28 percent said they decided in the last three days; in previous states the number was almost twice as much.) If the ads didn't do it, Romney's superior ground game did. His team started working the absentee and early voters in mid-December. Romney won that vote by a wide margin. 
 
 Romney won the 15 percent Hispanic vote 54 to 28. Gingrich had tried to make Romney's tough anti-illegal immigration position an issue, but it didn't work. That may be because the vote in Florida consists largely of Cubans, who are shielded from immigration policies that apply to other immigrants, and of Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens. Romney also won among women by 24 points. 
 
 The biggest blow for Gingrich is that exit polls show that just 55 percent of the voters view him favorably. Gingrich's big problem has always been that his low favorability rating with independent and swing voters makes it very hard for him to win the general election. That he can barely get a majority among his own tribe highlights how hard it would be for him as the GOP nominee. Seventy-four percent of voters had a favorable view of Romney. 
 
 Gingrich will argue that if you add the Santorum vote to his it shows that the anti-Romney vote almost totals what Romney won. But elections don't work that way. Polling in Florida showed that Santorum's voters would split equally between Gingrich and Romney if their man fell out of the race. Teresa Ruiz is one such voter. At a Romney rally in Halijah, Fla., she said she wanted to vote for Santorum but didn't think he could beat Obama so she went with Romney. "I wanted to go with my heart," she said, "but I went with my head instead." 
 
 Romney emerges a stronger candidate. He certainly showed he was willing to do what it takes, for those voters who might worry about whether he was tough enough to go up against Obama. The terrain is now very favorable as Romney heads into contests in Nevada, Michigan, Colorado, and Minnesota. He won all four of those in 2008. The next contest where Gingrich might have a good chance is almost a month from now, on Super Tuesday. There is only one debate in that stretch. 
 
 The Romney camp was hoping for a victory big enough to start calls for an end to the bruising contest, and they got one. Romney still needs 1,054 more delegates. Gingrich has vowed to fight on. He can argue that the northern counties where he won resemble the southern states that will vote on Super Tuesday. But the pressure will build for Gingrich to get out of the race. Obama is vulnerable. The Gallup 2011 average of Obama's approval rating in 12 swing states was 43 percent—dangerous territory for an incumbent. So don't blow it, Romney's backers will argue, by dragging out the primary fight. Romney's image with independents has already been dinged by the process. His unfavorable ratings among independents went up 15 points in a recent Washington Post poll. ||||| TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney claimed a powerful victory in Florida’s presidential primary, reasserting himself as the front-runner for his party’s nomination and leaving Newt Gingrich reeling from a likely double-digit defeat and facing an uncertain path to regaining his post-South Carolina momentum. 
 
 With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Romney led Gingrich by 16 percentage points, 47 percent to 32 percent. Rick Santorum was a distant third, with 13 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 7 percent. 
 
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 reset Winners & Losers in 60 seconds Romney wins in Florida Gingrich after 2nd place finish 
 
 In just 10 days, Romney went from limping out of South Carolina — where Gingrich beat him handily — to scoring an almost across-the-board win against the former House speaker with nearly every category of GOP primary voter. 
 
 Addressing an energetic crowd of supporters here in Tampa, Romney acknowledged that the primary campaign was not over but predicted the GOP was on its way to victory in the fall. 
 
 “A competitive primary does not divide us. It prepares us. And we will win,” Romney said. “When we gather back here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America.” 
 
 Said Romney: “I stand ready to lead this party and to lead our nation.” 
 
 Romney’s final victory margin may tighten as returns come in from Florida’s conservative western Panhandle. But with a majority of votes reported, Romney appeared on the brink of an important symbolic accomplishment: winning more votes than Gingrich and Santorum — the two would-be anti-Romney conservatives — combined. 
 
 That won’t put to rest questions about Romney’s ability to connect with and fire up the activist base of the Republican Party. It may, however, deprive his beleaguered opponents of a key argument they’ve used to explain their persistence in the race. 
 
 Romney won with both men and women and in every age and income group, according to network exit polls. He won a majority of white voters — 53 percent — and 44 percent of Latinos. 
 
 The only conspicuous bright spot for Gingrich was voters who described themselves as “very conservative,” who made up 33 percent of the electorate and broke for Gingrich over Romney, 43 percent to 29 percent. 
 
 In his own evening speech in Orlando, Gingrich insisted that Florida had only helped to reinforce the overarching narrative of the campaign. 
 
 “It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich said. “The voters of Florida really made that clear.” 
 
 With supporters waving signs that read, “46 States to Go,” Gingrich vowed: “We are going to contest every place and we are going to win and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August.” 
 
 Gingrich will be hard-pressed to keep up with Romney, financially and organizationally — a dynamic already in play in Florida. 
 
 The dramatic scale of Romney’s win is in some respects a tale of traditional campaign legwork and preparation paying off. The Bay Stater raised money faster and earlier, built an operation in Florida sooner, and worked aggressively to exploit the state’s early and absentee voting laws.
– The big news organizations couldn't call this one fast enough. The moment the last of the Florida polls closed at 8pm, AP, CNN, and all the usual suspects declared Mitt Romney the winner. It wasn't tough: With all precincts reporting, Romney had 46.4%, Newt Gingrich 31.9%, Rick Santorum 13.4%, and Ron Paul 7%. In their respective speeches, Gingrich made clear that he is in the race for the long run, while Romney put all his focus on President Obama. Click for that. Some exit poll highlights: Electability: 45% said it was the most important attribute in a candidate, a good sign for Romney. Conservatives: Voters who called themselves "very conservative" went for Gingrich 43-29, one of Newt's few bright spots, notes Politico. Anyone else? About 4 in 10 said they would like another candidate in the race. Women: Romney won among female voters 51-29, reports the Daily Caller. Economy: 30% said they were falling behind financially, and half said foreclosures were a big problem in their communities, notes AP. Negative ads: 37% said Romney ran the most unfair campaign, while 34% pinned it on Gingrich. Demographics: About 1 in 7 voters were Hispanic, and 4 in 10 were over age 65.