Romney ‘one win from nomination’

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, by far the most moderate Republican vying for the nomination to face Barack Obama in November, officially dropped out of the race yesterday and endorsed Mr Romney, saying the former Massachusetts governor gave the party its best chance of defeating the President in the election.

After staking his candidacy on New Hampshire, Mr Huntsman finished third in the primary there last week. He faced a probable defeat in South Carolina’s primary on Saturday.

His dropping out leaves just five men heading into South Carolina’s critical Saturday vote, and a Romney victory would probably make his nomination inevitable.

Romney was first in Iowa caucus voting, then in the New Hampshire primary polling last week.

While a majority of Republicans do not trust Mr Romney because of his moderate past, they have been unable to settle their support on the more conservative alternatives: Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives; Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, or Texas governor Rick Perry.

Small-government libertarian candidate Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, has failed to rally sufficient support to make him a serious challenger in the first primary vote in America’s deep South.

Republicans now seem to be slowly converging on Mr Romney as the best of the Republican field but the candidates still face a packed week of campaign events and nationally televised debates.

In the past three decades, no Republican has won the party’s presidential nomination without carrying South Carolina. Polls show Mr Romney, who struggled to a fourth-place finish in South Carolina during his 2008 White House run, with a comfortable lead.

The state has a large population of evangelicals and other conservative Christians, and concerns arose four years ago about his Mormon faith.

But Mr Gingrich, Mr Santorum and Mr Perry all said Mr Romney, after his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, continued to benefit from the fractured Republican field and the failure of social conservatives to coalesce around a single alternative.

That has left Mr Romney in control of the race, despite a lack of support from conservatives who are put off by his shifting stances on social issues like abortion.

Mr Gingrich said he would “reassess” his candidacy if he lost in South Carolina and acknowledged that a Romney victory would mean “an enormous advantage going forward.”

The field that remains after Saturday’s vote will next compete in Florida on January 31. The party does not officially name its candidate until the Republican National Convention in September.

Word of the Huntsman withdrawal came on the same day The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, endorsed him for president.

It said there were “two sensible, experienced grown-ups in the race”, referring to Mr Romney and Mr Huntsman.

But it said Mr Huntsman “is more principled, has a far more impressive resume and offers a significantly more important message”.

Mr Huntsman’s background suggested he could be a major contender for the Republican nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and on foreign trade.

Yet he was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Mr Romney, a fellow Mormon.