WASHINGTON Women abandoned Newt Gingrich in droves Tuesday and helped fuel former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's triumph in Florida's Republican presidential primary, according to preliminary data from an exit poll of voters.
While Romney held a narrow lead over the former House speaker among men, he easily outdistanced him among women, winning around five of their votes for every three that went to Gingrich. In the three states in which Republicans had already voted for their presidential nominee Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina there was relatively little difference in how the sexes divided their votes between the two rivals.
Some of the data Tuesday suggested that many women's votes were influenced by a personal distaste for Gingrich. Asked their views of him as a person, men said they generally viewed him favorably by just under a 2-1 margin, while women were about evenly divided.
Asked if they would be satisfied if Gingrich won the GOP nomination, men said yes by nearly a 6-4 margin while women were closely split. In addition, while men divided about evenly between Gingrich and Romney over which candidate best understood average Americans' problems, women leaned toward Romney.
Women expressed stronger positive feelings about Romney than men did, but the difference between them was slight. More than 7 in 10 men and women expressed favorable views of Romney personally.
Romney's triumph came after a campaign in Florida in which he and his supporters outspent Gingrich on television ads by nearly a 5-1 margin, with many of the ads raising attacking the former speaker's character. None mentioned Gingrich's three marriages or the charges by his second wife, Marianne, that he asked permission for an open marriage before they were divorced, an allegation Gingrich has denied.
Early voters also gave Romney more of an edge. Those in the poll who voted early or by absentee ballot backed Romney by around a 2-1 majority, a stronger edge than he won among those at the polling places on Tuesday. Before Tuesday's voting, analysts thought Gingrich might pick up some late momentum in Florida because of his victory in South Carolina's Jan. 21 GOP primary.
Gingrich also showed more strength among lower-earning people and those hurting from Florida's economic ills.
Though Romney won among every income category, he did more strongly among higher-income voters than among those nearer the bottom economic rung. Gingrich managed to split the one-quarter of voters with Romney who said they are falling behind economically. And Gingrich did better among the half of voters who said home foreclosures are a major problem in their communities than he did among those who said it wasn't so bad.
The exit poll also showed Romney did better with less conservative people than with those considering themselves very conservative.
Gingrich prevailed among people who said they are very conservative, while Romney had a decisive edge among Florida GOP voters who are somewhat conservative, moderate or liberal. The two candidates split tea party supporters about evenly, while Romney won strongly among all others.
Around 6 in 10 Florida GOP voters said the economy was their biggest issue. They preferred Romney by about 20 percentage points.
The survey of 2,739 voters Republican voters was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research. This includes preliminary results among 2,139 voters interviewed Tuesday as they left their polling places at 40 randomly selected sites in Florida. In addition, 600 who voted early or absentee were interviewed by landline or cellular telephone from Jan. 23 to 29. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Associated Press global polling director Trevor Tompson and news survey specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
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