• New Hampshire primary results
• Romney wins big in New Hampshire, Paul takes second
• ‘Tactical voters’ went for Romney in Granite State
• Attacks on Romney now shift to South Carolina
NASHUA, N.H. – Candace Gendron, of Merrimack, would like to find a full-time job, but the graphics design firm that employs her has only been able to keep her on part time because of the struggling economy. On Tuesday, she voted for Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary.
“I think he’ll be able to create more jobs,” Gendron said after leaving the polling place at St. John Neumann Catholic Church. “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That’s my issue.”
She said Romney’s business background and executive experience in Massachusetts made him best prepared to handle economic issues as president.
Gendron was not alone. As Granite Staters went to the polls on an atypically balmy January day by New Hampshire standards, more than six out of 10 voters named the economy as their top issue in exit polls, which played right into the hands of Romney. He won 42 percent of those economic voters, double the next-closest showing, from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.
In the 2008 primary, when Romney lost a close race to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Iraq and terrorism were more important than the economy, which worked to McCain’s strengths as a war hero.
This time around, the weak economy and the hunger among Republicans to defeat President Obama allowed Romney to woo voters by touting his private-sector experience throughout the state.
Coming off a slim 8-vote win in Iowa, Romney immediately sought to create an air of inevitability here, staging the most sophisticated events of all GOP candidates, accompanied by political stars.
Last Wednesday, the morning after winning Iowa, he held a joint town hall meeting with McCain, who endorsed him and urged voters to give Romney a large victory so he could steamroll into South Carolina and get the nomination sewn up quickly.
On Sunday, hundreds of supporters packed into half of a basketball court at Exeter High School for a rally in which Romney was joined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. And no matter whether it was Romney speaking, or one of his surrogates, the theme was the same. As Christie put it, “American jobs are coming back when Mitt Romney is president.”
As his rivals went after him as they crisscrossed the state, Romney acted like the front-runner. In campaign stop after campaign stop, he kept on message, attacking Obama. And the strategy paid off.
“I think he has the best chance of beating Obama,” John Hart said after casting a vote for Romney at the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua. “I think we’re going down the path with too much debt, and I think a businessman can fix that.”
