Easy victory for Romney as contest heads to Missouri
With support from a broad cross-section of Republicans, Romney won by a big double-digit margin over former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.
The victory was Romney’s second in a row and his third in the first five contests in the state-by-state battle to find a challenger to President Barack Obama in November’s election.
It propels Romney into the next contests — in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri tomorrow — on a growing wave of momentum.
Gingrich held a news conference after the results to head off speculation that he might put an early end to his campaign.
“I’m not going to withdraw,” Gingrich told reporters, repeating his frequent vow to continue all the way to the Republican nominating convention in Florida in August. “I’m actually pretty happy with where we are.”
Romney, a former Massa-chusetts governor, took control of the Nevada contest early after recapturing his frontrunner status with a convincing win over Gingrich in Florida on Tuesday.
He benefited from a huge financial and organisational edge in Nevada, which he won with 51% of the vote during his failed 2008 presidential bid.
A faltering economy and a big bloc of Mormon voters made Nevada friendly terrain for Romney, a Mormon and former head of a private equity firm.
He stressed his business background as a cure for the state’s ailing economy, which suffers from the US’ highest unemployment and home foreclosure rate.
Entrance polls in Nevada showed it was a persuasive argument, with the economy ranking as the top issue and Romney winning two thirds of the voters who had it as their biggest concern.
“America needs a president who can fix the economy because he understands the economy, and I do and I will,” Romney told supporters at a Las Vegas casino hotel, aiming his criticism at Obama and ignoring his Republican rivals.
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