Georgia Win Keeps Newt Alive

But road ahead looks unclear, even in the South
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 7, 2012 2:05 AM CST
Updated Mar 7, 2012 2:31 AM CST
Georgia Win Keeps Newt Alive
Newt Gingrich waves during a Super Tuesday rally in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Newt Gingrich has received a much-needed boost from a big win in his home state—although without even a second-place finish elsewhere, the road ahead looks uncertain. Gingrich took 47% of the vote in Georgia to Mitt Romney's 26%, and Rick Santorum's 20%. More than a third of voters in the state Gingrich represented in the House for two decades said that his ties to Georgia influenced their choice, the New York Times notes.

Alabama and Mississippi vote next Tuesday, and Gingrich aides expect him to do well there, although Santorum won both Tennessee and Oklahoma on Super Tuesday, with Romney coming in second. With the pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future super PAC still awash with Nevada billionaire Sheldon Adelson's cash, Gingrich is unlikely to drop out soon. But "he’s got to win something outside the South,” an Emory University political scientist tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Where’s he going to go? Where’s he going to show strength?” (More Winning Our Future stories.)

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