Mitt Romney handily won Florida's Republican primary Tuesday, riding a new, combative campaign style to a victory that returns him to his role as the favorite to win his party's presidential nomination.
Fueled by a nearly 5-to-1 spending advantage over his top rival, Mr. Romney outpaced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among conservatives and tea-party supporters and drew nearly even with him among evangelical Christians, according to surveys of voters leaving polling sites. Those voters had gravitated to Mr. Romney's opponents in some prior contests.
With 100% of returns in, Mr. Romney was leading Mr. Gingrich, 46% to 32%. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was running a distant third at 13%, with Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind at 7%.
The results re-establish Mr. Romney as a formidable front-runner and undercut his opponents' claims that he can't rally the party behind him.
Mr. Gingrich in particular has pointed to support from the more restive, conservative factions of the GOP as the fuel driving his campaign. Despite the loss, Mr. Gingrich vowed to continue his campaign.
In his victory speech, Mr. Romney looked beyond the bitter infighting of the last week and predicted victory in November. "A competitive primary does not divide us," he said. "It prepares us. And we will win."
He then turned his attention back to President Barack Obama, saying, "Together we will build an America where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker."
After winning in just a few pockets of the state in 2008, Mr. Romney was strong from the conservative Panhandle all the way down to the more moderate coastal enclaves around Miami and south of Tampa. He also benefited from a sizable advantage among Republican women. Exit surveys showed Mr. Romney outpolling Mr. Gingrich among women, 52% to 28%, a gap far larger than his lead among voters overall.
Voting outside Tampa, 67-year-old Glen Witherbee said he had mulled voting for Mr. Gingrich but was turned away by some of his negative attacks on the stump. So he went with Mr. Romney, despite misgivings.
"I don't love him, but I like him enough," he said.
With wins in Florida and New Hampshire now behind him, Mr. Romney has taken two of the four first nominating contests. He lost a squeaker to Mr. Santorum in Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses and a come-from-behind upset to Mr. Gingrich in South Carolina Jan. 21.
Still, only 5% of the party's 2,286 convention delegates will have been apportioned after the Florida vote is final, leaving all candidates a long way from clinching the nomination.
At Mr. Gingrich's campaign party in Orlando Tuesday night, his supporters waved signs reading: "46 states to go."
"It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate," Mr. Gingrich told the crowd. "I just want to reassure them tonight, we are going to contest every place and we are going to win."
Mr. Gingrich had entered Florida after his big win in South Carolina with the polls in his favor. But a freshly assertive Mr. Romney swiftly punctured the Gingrich surge during one of the most acrimonious weeks in recent presidential campaign history.
Campaigning earlier on Tuesday, the former House speaker blamed his anticipated loss on the barrage of negative ads against him.
Mr. Romney benefited from superior organization that worked for months to rally absentee and early voters. It also had a hefty financial advantage that allowed him and a super PAC backing his candidacy to outspend his rival in the state's expensive media markets starting in mid-December, weeks before Mr. Gingrich ran his first ad. Mr. Romney and his supporters spent $15.6 million on television ads, compared to the $3.3 million spent by Mr. Gingrich and his supporters.
The win cements Mr. Romney's standing as the Republican to beat ahead of a string of binding and nonbinding nominating contests in February, which include states where Mr. Romney performed well in the 2008 campaign.
A defiant Mr. Gingrich, looking forward, is now pinning his hopes on strong showings in Southern states such as Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, which hold their nominating contests in March and April.
But the large margin of his defeat in Florida could leave him struggling to persuade conservatives to stand by him and to continue to donate to keep his campaign alive.
Mr. Romney regained his front-runner status in Florida in part by questioning Mr. Gingrich's sincerity and stability as a leader.
The former private-equity executive also savaged his rival for the work he did for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, an issue that resonated in a state hard-hit by the housing slump.
As a result, he was able to turn the conversation away from questions about his own wealth and work for a private-equity firm that had characterized the race in South Carolina.
Romney supporters covered a wide spectrum, from Jesse Havard, a 25-year-old Army veteran who recently returned from his third tour in Afghanistan, to Susan Tynan, a 62-year-old retired nurse from Sarasota who grew up in Michigan and has fond memories of Mr. Romney's father, George, from his days as the state's governor.
"The biggest corporation in the world is the United States, and Mitt Romney has the best experience to run it," Ms. Tynan said, before the candidate addressed an election-eve rally in Dunedin, a small town on the Gulf across the bay from Tampa.
In a state racked by high unemployment and depressed home prices, a survey of voters at polling stations showed that Florida Republicans put a premium on which candidate was best suited to beating Mr. Obama.
"Everyone is starting to believe Romney is the person who can beat the president and go on to turn the economy around," said state Rep. Will Weatherford, a Republican and Romney supporter who represents the bellwether of Pasco County, just north of Tampa. "They look at Mitt Romney and see someone who can win."
Messrs. Paul and Santorum watched the Florida returns from Nevada, where they are striving for a head start ahead of that state's caucuses on Saturday.
Mr. Paul campaigned little in Florida in order to focus on states where he has a better chance to win delegates.
Speaking to a crowd estimated at around 1,000 outside of Las Vegas, Mr. Paul said he had called Mr. Romney to congratulate him as the Florida votes were coming in win. He added however, to roaring applause, that he had told Mr. Romney "I'll see you in the caucus states!"
Likewise, Mr. Santorum kicked off the week with quick stops in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri before settling in Nevada.
For the first time since entering the race, he has leased a plane big enough to shuttle reporters from one stop to the next as he tries to breathe new life into his shoestring campaign.
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