Television networks and The Associated Press projected Newt Gingrich as the winner of the South Carolina primary Saturday, just 10 days after a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire left the impression his candidacy was all but dead.
Surprising his rivals and upending the highly unpredictable Republican race for the presidency in its third, pivotal contest, so strong was Mr. Gingrich’s performance that the major television networks declared him the winner the minute the polls closed, basing their projections on exit polls that showed him winning a plurality of voters among a wide swath of important Republican voting blocs.
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Newt Gingrich, in Anderson, S.C., has upended the Republican race
S.C. Primary Results
9:48 PM ET 1:03 Candidate Votes Percent
Newt Gingrich 209,218 40.4%
Mitt Romney 139,804 27.0
Rick Santorum 89,871 17.4
Ron Paul 69,360 13.4
Herman Cain 5,332 1.0