BLUFFTON, S.C., Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, after his win in the Michigan primary, has already ceded Saturday's South Carolina primary to his rivals.
Campaigning in Bluffton, S.C., the former Massachusetts governor said he expects Arizona Sen. John McCain to win in the Palmetto State, Politico.com reported Thursday.
"This is a state I'd expect that Sen. McCain has pretty well wrapped up," Romney told reporters at the Sun City Hilton Head Retirement Center. "It would be an enormous surprise if he were unable to win here."
Rather than stick around South Carolina, where says he doesn't foresee a win, Romney is going to Nevada, which is also holding its nominating exercise Saturday.
Polls indicate that Romney is in third place in South Carolina, taking anywhere from 13 percent to 17 percent of the vote, Politico reported.
Since 1980, no Republican candidate has won the GOP presidential nomination without first winning the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina.
"It's always been the gateway, but you know what — the calendar has changed, the cycle is changing," Warren Tompkins, Romney's South Carolina strategist and a veteran consultant, said after a rally in Charleston.
"South Carolina is important, but it may end up that Florida is the gateway this time," he said.
