Bringing up the rear are Texas Governor Rick Perry with five percent (5%) and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman at two percent (2%). Another two percent (2%) of these likely primary voters like some other candidate, and 11% remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
In the first Rasmussen Reports survey of the South Carolina Republican Primary race in November, Georgia businessman Herman Cain came in first with 33% support, followed by Romney and Gingrich. Cain has since dropped out of the race…
In 2008, during the final week leading up to the South Carolina primary, voters for less successful candidates peeled away from their first choice to vote for one of the two front-runners. In that race, it was the eventual nominee John McCain and the second place finisher Mike Huckabee.
It’s important to note, too, that 66% of all likely Republican primary voters in South Carolina, regardless of whom they want to win, think Romney will ultimately win the party’s presidential nomination. Just 11% predict that Santorum will be the GOP nominee, while nine percent (9%) expect Gingrich to triumph. Forty-five percent (45%) say Romney would be the strongest Republican against President Obama versus 18% who feel that way about Gingrich and 16% who say that of Santorum.
