If you had asked any number of political pundits and experts who they thought would win the Republican nomination for president, most of them would have said Mitt Romney without any hesitation. However, after the South Carolina primary on January 21, 2012, many of them have since changed their tone. With 40% of the votes, Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary over Mitt Romney by a 13% margin of victory. Mitt Romney came in second with 27% and Penn State's own Rick Santorum came in third with 17% of the vote. Between the two of them, Rick Santorum won the Iowa Caucus (just barely), while Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, leaving some confused as to who truly is the frontrunner.
For the whole of the election process Mitt Romney has maintained fairly steady support, while all of the other candidates have had their moment in the sun and then faded into obscurity. Michelle Bachman won the Iowa Straw poll back in August before dropping out of the race in early January. Both Herman Cain and Rick Perry received large amounts of media attention and gained support for a short time before dropping out (Cain in early December and Perry in mid-January). As of now, there are four main candidates, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul. So, the question remains, is Newt Gingrich just experiencing a short rise in popularity before Romney regains his position as the frontrunner, or does he truly have a chance of stealing the nomination? Next week will be an indicator as to whether Gingrich can keep the momentum going, as the Florida primary is January 31. Until then, both candidates will campaign hard in the state to try to gain as much support as possible.
Newt Gingrich's win in the South Carolina primary definitely turned some heads. The primary really was not all that close. This is what was most surprising. The fact that Gingrich had 40% of the votes over Romney's 27% is very interesting. That is a pretty big margin which leads me to believe that Gingrich truly may be gaining popularity and be a threat for the Republican nomination. Romney has appeared to be the front runner for the Republicans for some time now, but that could change. I'm not really sure if Gingrich is going to end up winning the nomination, but it will be interesting if he wins the Florida primary. Only time will tell who is going to be the Republican candidate for the election.
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