Gingrich eyes upset in key South Carolina vote

South Carolina voters cast ballots in a pivotal Republican presidential primary on Saturday, with surging Newt Gingrich tipped to score an upset win that may turn the race upside down.

"I need your help," the former House speaker told a packed crowd at Tommy's Country Ham House restaurant. "We have an opportunity to nominate the genuine conservative who can debate, and who can take it to Barack Obama."

Results were expected to start coming in around 7:30 pm (0030 GMT Sunday) and full statewide results were due roughly two hours later, amid media reports of solid turnout despite heavy rains in some areas.

If Gingrich defeats longtime frontrunner Mitt Romney, it would rekindle doubts about whether the more moderate former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire investor, champion of the party's establishment, can rally the conservative core, where he is viewed with suspicion.

"We'd like to win here, of course, but we've got a long way to go," Romney said at the same restaurant, where he arrived nearly an hour earlier than a scheduled time that would have seen him cross paths with Gingrich.

The winner of the first contest in the US South will find the wind in his sails ahead of the January 31 primary in the vote-rich battleground of Florida, as the candidates bid to be the party's nominee to take on President Barack Obama in November elections.

And no Republican since 1980 has captured the party's nomination without first winning this southern bastion.

A victory here would be Gingrich's first triumph after Christian conservative former senator Rick Santorum squeaked out a victory in Iowa and Romney romped in New Hampshire, dividing up the electoral spoils and bragging rights.

A loss for Romney in the state where he was once favored by nearly 20 points would turn what he hoped would be a sprint to the nomination into a marathon where his rivals' momentum would face his more sophisticated, well-oiled operation.

Voters divided

At Tommy's Country Ham House, voters were divided but rarely undecided.

"Mitt has the executive experience, the managerial experience, the integrity, to beat Obama and turn this country around," litigation lawyer Henry Parr, 60, told AFP as he waited to order his food.

Across from him, friend Ron Henderson, a 56-year-old retired box-making company manager with a blue "I Voted" sticker on his jacket, says "Gingrich! We need an experienced politician -- which is backwards from how I normally think -- and an intellectual to take out Obama."

Veteran Representative Ron Paul, a small-government champion opposed to foreign aid and overseas military intervention and backed by a devoted core of supporters, said the primary was "not do-or-die" and vowed to soldier on.

Santorum did the same, and told Fox News "we're running very strongly here, we feel really good."

An American Research Group poll found Gingrich leading Romney 40-26 percent, Paul in third with 18 percent, and Santorum at 13 percent. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points.

Romney's once-substantial advantage at the national level may also be shrinking, with pollsters Gallup saying Friday that his US-wide lead over Gingrich plummeted to 30-20 percent, compared with 37-14 a week earlier.

Gingrich has risen with a series of feisty debate performances, and drew a standing ovation Thursday with a blistering reply to a question about his marital woes, a query he denounced as "despicable."

Romney meanwhile has sought to deflect attacks that he built his vast fortune while firing workers, saying he expected such jibes from Obama, not fellow Republicans -- traditionally the party of business.

And he has countered calls from his rivals and Democrats to release his tax filings, in keeping with tradition, by pressing Gingrich to make public more records from an ethics reprimand he received in 1997.

At Tommy's, Elaine Stephens, 67, a retired "media specialist and mom" who backed Romney, was with friend Cindy Sweetay 63, a retired flight attendant and fervent Gingrich supporter, each waving signs of their preferred candidate as they joked with reporters.

"This is a table divided!" quipped Stephens, who was giving Sweetay a ride to the polling station after breakfast.