MIAMI (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.
The White House contenders courted Florida’s sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.
Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.
The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday’s contest.
That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.
Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich’s campaign.
“With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him,” Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown