Newt Gingrich Wins Big in South Carolina

The results in today’s South Carolina GOP primary (with 99% counted) are:

Newt Gingrich 40%
Mitt Romney 28%
Rick Santorum 17%
Ron Paul 13%

This double digit win is even more impressive than it looks when you consider that Gingrich will likely win a majority of Santorum’s supporters when he inevitably leaves the race.

According PPP’s “second choice” polling of Santorum supporters in Georgia; Gingrich is their second choice twice as often as Romney is.

This means that not only did Gingrich win by 12% points but he likely would have won by even more if Santorum weren’t around and it’s quite likely Santorum won’t be around soon. While he is claiming he will stick around through Florida there will be a lot of pressure on him to quit.

Clearly with this huge victory today Gingrich has all of the momentum in the race. If he can continue his winning ways in Florida on January 31 then he must be considered the new front-runner for the nomination.

For now I think it’s safe to say that this race is wide open. Despite all of the talk of Romney’s “inevitable” nomination by the media and the Republican establishment; Republican primary voters don’t appear willing to settle for him.