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Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posted: 02/01/2012
TALLAHASSEE, Fl. - Mitt Romney followed up a double digit loss to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, with a big win in Florida.
Exit polling showed a gender gap is one reason Romney scored a double digit victory in Florida's GOP primary.
Women abandoned Gingrich in droves.
Returns from 98% of Florida's precincts showed Romney with 46% of the vote to 32% for Gingrich, the former house speaker.
For the first time in the campaign, exit polls showed a gender gap and it worked to Romney's advantage.
He was leading Gingrich 52 to 28 among women votes and was winning men by a smaller margin of 41 to 36.
Gingrich has been married three times.
Only about half of women voters said they had a favorable view of him as a person, compared to about eight in ten for Romney.
Gingrich vowed to press on despite the setback.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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