11-Jan-2012 - The Caucus: How Romney Won

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MANCHESTER, N.H. — A prevailing sense among New Hampshire primary voters that Mitt Romney is the candidate most likely to defeat Barack Obama helped lift him to victory on Tuesday.According to exit polls, a majority of voters said Mr. Romney was the most electable candidate, and about 6 in 10 of them supported him TuesdayMr. Romney has been making that argument for months, and has focused most of his rhetorical fire at the president in the hopes of demonstrating how he will run against him.It appears that the argument worked. Over all, about a third of New Hampshire voters said electability was the top quality they were looking for in a candidate – it was NFL JERSEYS cited more than any other quality – and about 6 in 10 of these voters backed Mr. Romney (he won this group in Iowa as well, but not as convincingly).Most voters in New Hampshire said they would be satisfied with Mr. Romney as the Republican presidential nominee. By contrast, a majority of voters said they would be dissatisfied if Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul or Rick Santorum was the nominee.The most important issue by far for New Hampshire voters was the economy, cited by about 6 in 10, and these voters supported Mr. Romney far more than any other candidate. Compared with Iowa, more voters in New Hampshire said the economy was their top issue, buy NFL Jerseys and more of them supported Mr. Romney.Mr. Romney ran strongly among enrolled Republicans and self-identified Republicans. Undeclared voters and independents were more closely divided between candidates.The difference in the makeup of today's electorate compared with Iowa's also worked to Mr. Romney's advantage. Very conservative voters (a group that divided their support NFL jerseys wholesale between Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum today) accounted for only about 2 in 10 New Hampshire voters. In Iowa, they accounted for nearly half of all caucusgoers. Similarly, evangelical Christians (who also split their vote today) made up just over a fifth of New Hampshire's electorate; they comprised a majority of Iowa's voters a week ago.Other groups helping to boost Mr. Romney today were higher-income voters (he won nearly half of voters whose household income was 100,000 or more, more than a third of today's electorate), older voters, Catholics and voters who had made up their minds early.Dalia Sussman, polling editor, contributed to this post.

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