South Carolina poll: Gingrich triumphs over Romney
Newt
Gingrich has convincingly beaten Mitt Romney in South Carolina's
primary election, the latest leg in the battle to be the Republican
candidate in November's US presidential poll.
With almost all votes counted, Mr Gingrich had 40% to Mr Romney's 28%.
Mr
Romney was widely seen as the frontrunner, but the latest outcome is
set to turn the race into a long, hard-fought campaign, correspondents
say.
The South Carolina victor has won the nomination in each election since 1980.
Other
Republican hopefuls, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and
Texas representative Ron Paul, were trailing badly with 17% and 13%
respectively.
Knockout punch plea
US networks called the vote
in the former House speaker's favour shortly after polls closed at 19:00
local time on Saturday (00:00 GMT Sunday), as exit polls predicted a
wide margin of victory for Mr Gingrich.
BBC North America editor
Mark Mardell, in South Carolina, says a Gingrich win is important,
because all along the story of this race has been the search by
Conservatives for an alternative to Mitt Romney.
It is just
possible they have settled on Mr Gingrich, and at the very least such a
result will puncture the sense that eventually Mr Romney will triumph,
our correspondent adds.
Shortly after the vote, Mr Gingrich wrote
on Twitter: "Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout
punch in Florida," referring to the next nominating contest on 31
January.
The contest for that state is now seen as crucial, being
a major battleground state in the US general election, with a diverse
electorate and where a lot of money will be spent campaigning.
Several
hours later, Mr Gingrich appeared at his campaign headquarters in the
state capital Columbia - to wild cheers from supporters.
"We
don't have the kind of money that at least one of the candidates has,
but we do have ideas and we do have people and we have proved here in
South Carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money
and with your help we are going to prove it again in Florida," he said.
Earlier,
Mr Romney told his supporters they were "three contests into a long
primary season" and vowed to fight for every vote in every state.
Meanwhile, Mr Santorum pledged to fight on, saying: "It's a wide open race".
Mr
Gingrich has captured the headlines in recent days, batting off a
potentially damaging interview from an ex-wife, in which she said he had
wanted an "open marriage".
Mr Gingrich's victory means that
three different candidates have won the first three nominating
state-by-state contests - Mr Santorum narrowly beat Mr Romney in the
Iowa caucus, while Mr Romney claimed the New Hampshire primary.
All
contenders agree that this will now be an endurance race, rather than
the quick sprint which Team Romney had hoped for, the BBC's Steve
Kingstone says.
Mr Romney must now adapt his strategy, and come
up with a more decisive riposte to those who criticise his personal
wealth and career record as a venture capitalist, our correspondent
says.
Expect a brutal media war in Florida, he adds.
Mr
Romney set the tone in his post-defeat address, accusing Newt Gingrich
of aligning himself with President Obama in a "frontal assault on free
enterprise". For his part, Gingrich will counter that the "Massachusetts
moderate" is the real Obama clone.
Primaries and caucuses will
be held in every US state over the next few months to pick a Republican
nominee before the eventual winner is anointed at the party convention
in August to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in November
