Below is from my FNC colleague Serafin Gomez
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Subject: SC Final: Gingrich 40%, Romney 26%
Newt Gingrich leads the South Carolina Republican presidential primary with 40% and is followed by Mitt Romney with 26%, Ron Paul with 18%, and Rick Santorum with 13%.
Gingrich has gained 7 percentage points since the survey conducted January 17-18 and Romney has lost 6 percentage points since that survey.
Gingrich leads Romney 47% to 24% among self-identified Republicans, followed by Paul and Santorum with 14% each. Paul leads among independents and Democrats with 33%, followed by Romney with 31%, Gingrich with 18%, and Santorum with 10%.
Gingrich leads among those likely primary voters saying they are supporters of the Tea Party with 48%, followed by Romney with 19%, Santorum with 16%, and Paul with 14%. Gingrich leads with 33% among those saying they are not supporters of the Tea Party or are undecided about the Tea Party, followed by Romney with 31%, and Paul with 22%.
Gingrich leads Romney among men 38% to 25%, followed by Paul with 21%. Among women, Gingrich leads Romney 42% to 26%, followed by Paul with 16%, and Santorum with 13%.
Gingrich leads Romney 43% to 24% among likely Republican primary voters saying they will definitely vote.
Details from the survey of 600 likely Republican primary voters conducted January 19-20, 2012 can be found here.
The trend to Gingrich continues, with women leading the way. In the January 17-18 survey, Gingrich was leading Romney 29% to 28% among women, in this survey Gingrich leads Romney 42% to 26% among women. Gingrich has become the anti-Romney among women and that is driving his total share up. The debate on Thursday and his ex-wife problem did not slow the trend.
Younger, self-described independents say they will go out and vote for Paul. We’ll see if that happens.
Also, results from our national survey that include Obama job approvals and ratings of the national economy can be found at http://americanresearchgroup.com/economy/. Disapproval is back up after a break in December.
Dick Bennett
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