Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich won the support of South Carolina’s evangelical and pro-life voters during that state’s GOP primary. Gingrich won 44 percent of those who identify themselves as born-again or evangelical, besting Mitt Romney’s 22 percent, Rick Santorum’s 21 percent and Ron Paul’s 13 percent, according to exit polls. Evangelicals comprised 65 percent of the state’s GOP voters.
Among voters who think abortion should be illegal, Gingrich won 45 percent of the vote, with Santorum and Romney getting 21 percent each and Paul 11 percent. That bloc was 64 percent of the state GOP electorate.
Gingrich, in fact, won nearly every category – men, women, conservatives, Catholics and Protestants – in cruising to a primary victory with 40 percent of the vote to Romney’s 28 percent and Santorum’s 17 percent.
Gingrich’s victory means that evangelicals and pro-lifers voted for a different candidate in each state (prior to Florida’s primary), with Santorum winning both blocs in Iowa and Romney doing so in New Hampshire.
Santorum did win in South Carolina among GOP voters who think abortion is the most critical issue, capturing 51 percent of that segment to Gingrich’s 29 percent, Paul’s 13 percent and Romney’s 6 percent. But that bloc made up only 8 percent of all South Carolina GOP voters. – BP