Newt Gingrich won today’s South Carolina Republican presidential primary, derailing rival Mitt Romney’s bid to quickly seal the party’s nomination and throwing the race into turmoil as it heads to Florida.
Gingrich had 41 percent of the vote, followed by Romney with 27 percent, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the AP.
Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had 17 percent and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas had 13 percent.
Gingrich’s win means the Republican race has now produced a different first-place finisher in the first three nominating contests. Florida holds its primary Jan. 31.
Gingrich, in a message on the Twitter social networking site, said: “Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida.”
In a speech to South Carolina supporters tonight, he thanked them for deciding “to be with us in changing Washington.”
Mr. Gingrich's win came just over a week after his back-of-the-pack finish in New Hampshire's primary, raising questions about his viability as a candidate. Now, he has scrambled the Republican nomination race and ended the prospects that the party would consolidate quickly around a nominee.
The win is a significant milestone for Mr. Gingrich, whose candidacy was severely damaged last summer when most of his top aides resigned en masse after they questioned whether he had the focus to be a viable candidate. He carried on with little staff or money afterward—and now has won in the state whose victor has been chosen the GOP nominee in every contest since 1980.
Speaking to a packed room of supporters in Columbia, the state's capital, Mr. Gingrich said his win was a rebuke to the "elites in Washington and New York." He also acknowledged that he was tilting against many of the elites within his own party.
"We want to run, not a Republican campaign, we want to run an American campaign," he said.
Foreshadowing the testy tenor of the race to come, Mr. Romney took aim at Mr. Gingrich after the polls closed, saying that "our party can't be lead to victory by someone who has never run a business and never run a state…That's a mistake for our party, for our nation.''
He also referred to Mr. Gingrich's attacks of Mr. Romney's work with Bain Capital, a private-equity firm. Those who "disparage" economic success "are not going to be fit to be our nominee," he said.
The nomination contest race now heads to Florida, a far larger and more expensive state for the candidates. Mr. Romney's rivals face a challenge in surmounting his superior organizational and financial edge in the Jan. 31 primary there.
Gingrich had 41 percent of the vote, followed by Romney with 27 percent, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the AP.
Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had 17 percent and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas had 13 percent.
Gingrich’s win means the Republican race has now produced a different first-place finisher in the first three nominating contests. Florida holds its primary Jan. 31.
Gingrich, in a message on the Twitter social networking site, said: “Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida.”
In a speech to South Carolina supporters tonight, he thanked them for deciding “to be with us in changing Washington.”
Mr. Gingrich's win came just over a week after his back-of-the-pack finish in New Hampshire's primary, raising questions about his viability as a candidate. Now, he has scrambled the Republican nomination race and ended the prospects that the party would consolidate quickly around a nominee.
The win is a significant milestone for Mr. Gingrich, whose candidacy was severely damaged last summer when most of his top aides resigned en masse after they questioned whether he had the focus to be a viable candidate. He carried on with little staff or money afterward—and now has won in the state whose victor has been chosen the GOP nominee in every contest since 1980.
Speaking to a packed room of supporters in Columbia, the state's capital, Mr. Gingrich said his win was a rebuke to the "elites in Washington and New York." He also acknowledged that he was tilting against many of the elites within his own party.
"We want to run, not a Republican campaign, we want to run an American campaign," he said.
Foreshadowing the testy tenor of the race to come, Mr. Romney took aim at Mr. Gingrich after the polls closed, saying that "our party can't be lead to victory by someone who has never run a business and never run a state…That's a mistake for our party, for our nation.''
He also referred to Mr. Gingrich's attacks of Mr. Romney's work with Bain Capital, a private-equity firm. Those who "disparage" economic success "are not going to be fit to be our nominee," he said.
The nomination contest race now heads to Florida, a far larger and more expensive state for the candidates. Mr. Romney's rivals face a challenge in surmounting his superior organizational and financial edge in the Jan. 31 primary there.
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