Romney, Gingrich head for crucial South Carolina
GREENVILLE, South Carolina, Jan 21 (AFP) - South Carolina voters began casting ballots in a pivotal Republican presidential primary today, as surging Newt Gingrich eyed an upset win that could turn the race upside down.
Polls opened across the state at 7:00 am (1200 GMT), as scheduled.
If the former House speaker defeats longtime frontrunner Mitt Romney, it could rekindle doubts about whether the more moderate former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire investor, champion of the party's establishment, can rally the conservative core, where he is viewed with suspicion.
And the winner of the first nominating contest in the US South will find the wind in his sails ahead of the January 31 primary in the vote-rich battleground of Florida.
The neck-and-neck rivals criss-crossed South Carolina ahead of the primary, mindful that no Republican since 1980 has cap- tured the party's nomination without first winning this southern bastion.
A victory here would be Gingrich's first triumph after Christian conservative former senator Rick Santorum squeaked out a victory in Iowa and Romney romped in New Hampshire.
“Tomorrow's going to be a very, very important day,” Gingrich said at a packed campaign rally Friday in Orangeburg, adding that he aimed to “win a shockingly big victory tomorrow.”but Romney hoped a better-organized and richer campaign organization would ultimately carry him to victory and put him on course to take on President Barack Obama in the November 6 elections.
“I think I said from the very beginning: South Carolina is an uphill battle (for) a guy from Massachusetts. I knew that. We're battling hard,” he told reporters as his campaign abandoned once-confident predictions of victory in the state.
A painful loss here, where he was once favored by nearly 20 points, would turn what Romney hoped would be a sprint to the nomination into a marathon where his rivals' momentum would face his more sophisticated, well- oiled operation.
In a quirk of scheduling, Gingrich and Romney were due at Tommy's Country Ham House here within minutes of each other, raising anticipation they could come face to face in front of a rowdy breakfast crowd at the eatery.