Romney Wins Michigan GOP Primary

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Michigan Candidates React - Mitt Romney

Handing his campaign a much needed boost, former Mass. governor Mitt Romney beats Sen. John McCain in Michigan primary after losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

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The longtime senator and former prisoner of war has surged to the top of national polls in recent days and had predicted a narrow win earlier Tuesday. But Michigan's Democrats and independent voters who had turned out in droves for him eight years ago largely stayed home this year.

"For a minute there in New Hampshire, I thought this race was getting easier," McCain said Tuesday night at a rally of several hundred people in a ballroom in downtown Charleston, adding that he will continue on because he doesn't "mind a fight."

"We did what we always try to do: We went to Michigan and told people the truth," he said.

McCain prides himself on being a "straight talker" but it sometimes gets him in trouble, especially with the Republican base. In Michigan, he bluntly said that some jobs that had been lost would never return. In South Carolina last summer, he angered conservatives with his support of immigration reform backed by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.).

But McCain is hoping that South Carolina proves his appeal with the GOP establishment, many of whom are now backing him. Several longtime Washington figures, including Sens. Trent Lott (Miss.) and Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and former senator Dan Coats (Ind.), have appeared in the state on McCain's behalf.

In a sign of how the presidential campaign may be reshaped as it shifts to South Carolina, Huckabee declared in Rock Hill that he favored stopping immigrants from countries that sponsor terrorism. His aides quickly clarified the statement, saying he would review procedures for immigrants from such countries.

Shortly after arriving in South Carolina, McCain's team responded to the Vietnam Veterans Against McCain, a group that has blasted the senator's military service. One flier shows a picture of a bloated McCain with "SONGBIRD" and "AN ENORMOUS CRIME, THE POWS I HELPED LEAVE BEHIND" printed next to his face. A separate mailer alleges that McCain received medals despite having spent little time in combat.

McCain's campaign released a statement from Orson Swindle, who was a prisoner of war with McCain in Vietnam and who said that McCain never told the North Vietnamese anything.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I know because I was there," Swindle said in the statement.

McCain's team was quick to respond to the veterans group's attack, mindful of his 2000 loss in South Carolina, when negative attacks contributed to his downfall, and of Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 run, during which a similar group questioned the Democrat's military service.

But Tuesday was Romney's night, as senior aides basked in their success, having dodged what could have been a disastrous night for their candidate. While the campaign had long emphasized the need to win in Iowa and New Hampshire, several said Michigan is a better indicator of how Romney could capture the GOP vote nationwide.

The margin of victory was "pretty significant. It's a big win," said senior aide Ben Ginsberg. "There are three to four times more voters here than in New Hampshire, and ten times more than in Iowa."