TAMPA |
TAMPA (Reuters) – Mitt Romney was on his way to winning the Florida Republican presidential primary on Tuesday as partial results showed him with a sizable lead over Newt Gingrich, his closest rival for the party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama.
With 45 percent of the vote counted and less than a half hour before the last polls close in Florida, Romney had 49 percent of the vote to Gingrich’s 30 percent in the largest nominating contest so far this year, TV networks reported.
Romney, the wealthy former Massachusetts governor and private equity firm executive, is seeking to rebound from his crushing loss to Gingrich in the January 21 South Carolina primary.
The well-funded and well-organized Romney surged in opinion polls in Florida after aggressively pressing Gingrich in two debates and pounding him with negative advertising following the South Carolina primary.
The Florida primary was the fourth in the series of state-by-state contests to pick the Republican nominee to face Obama, a Democrat,
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