Romney's Rout in Florida

Mitt Romney won a broad, deep, and decisive victory in the Florida Republican primary last night; a victory that casts serious doubts on the rationales of every other candidates’ (but Ron Paul’s) continued participation in the race.

Romney won more votes last night (771,842) than John McCain did four years ago (701,761). His 46 percent of the vote was greater than Newt Gingrich’s 32 percent and Rick Santorum’s 13 percent, combined. He won among whites, Latinos, every age group, every education group, and every income group. He won among men. He won among women. He won married voters. He won single voters. The only groups he lost were “strong supporters” of the Tea Party (45 percent to 33 percent) and “White Evangelical/Born Again” Christians (38 percent to 36 percent). Even then, Romney did win soft Tea Party supporters 50 percent to 28 percent.

Florida Republicans are strong conservatives. They picked Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., over moderate Charlie Christ. They elected Tea Party favorite Rick Scott governor. Romney’s wide margin of victory shows he has broad enough appeal to unite conservatives.

http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/primaries/epolls/fl

Posted via email from Global Politics