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Why Did Gingrich Lose Florida?

Hannah Madans |
February 1, 2012 | 2:43 p.m. PST

Associate News Editor

courtesy Creative Commons
courtesy Creative Commons
Mitt Romney won the Florida primary with 46.4 percent of the vote while Newt Gingrich only took 31.9 percent. Romney had viewed Florida as one of the most important primaries and has been working for months on winning. He had a large staff and organization in place and spent millions of dollars there, according to the Moderate Voice.

Gingrich had less money, less time and less organization in Florida.

Romney also had a much larger percentage of the Latino vote than Gingrich did. Roughly 11.1 percent of registered Republicans in Florida are Hispanic, 32.1 percent of which are Cuban, according to Florida Today.

Romney was supported by numerous prominent Cuban-American politicians, which helped him secure that portion of the vote.

Florida was one of the states hit hardest by the housing crisis. Romney used this to bring up Gingrich’s ties to housing giant Freddie Mac. Gingrich’s ties to an organization that many people in Florida deem partially responsible for the housing bubble likely hurt him in the primary.

Gingrich and Romney presented similar solutions: tax less, less government and strip regulations. Since the solutions presented by both candidates were the same, voters looked at who deserved the least amount of blame, according to the Globe and Mail.

Gingrich’s campaign team spent less money in Florida then Romney’s team. In addition to money spent by the candidates’ campaign funds, Super PAC groups also spent a lot of money. More PAC groups spent money to aid Romney and air anti-Gingrich ads. One PAC group that aided Romney spent 20 times more money in Florida then the amount spent by any other group.

Gingrich lost the Florida primary because he was outspent, did not appeal to Latino voters and was viewed as being involved in the housing crisis. 

 

Reach associate news editor Hannah Madans here.



 

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