Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were rivals for the GOP nomination. Now, Gingrich tells USA TODAY he'll endorse Romney.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a double-digit lead in his home state over Mitt Romney.
That's according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for our Gannett sister station, WXIA in Atlanta, released Friday.
But the poll also shows that Romney has gained big ground in Gingrich's home state since the last poll in December.
The latest poll, conducted Feb. 1 and 2, shows Gingrich leading Romney in Georgia, 45 percent to 32 percent.
The poll also shows that the other two Republicans still in the
presidential race are in single digits, with Rick Santorum at 9 percent
and Ron Paul at 8.
Two percent favored some other candidate and 4 percent were undecided.
The poll's margin of error is 4.7 percent.
The state's presidential primary is March 6.
A SurveyUSA poll released Dec. 8 showed Gingrich with 65 percent in Georgia, Romney 12 percent. That means Romney has cut Gingrich's lead here from 53 points to 13 points.
SurveyUSA interviewed more than 1,300 Georgians this week and determined that 459 of them were likely to vote in the Republican presidential primary.
The February survey showed Gingrich beating Romney among nearly every subgroup in the state.
But Romney was the choice among voters younger than 34, among voters who said they were independent or moderate or pro-choice, and among voters who earn more than $80,000 a year.
But the survey showed that more Georgians had unfavorable than favorable opinions of both.
For Gingrich, 34 percent had a good opinion of him, 41 percent had a negative opinion and 19 percent were neutral. For Romney it was 25 percent favorable, 42 percent unfavorable and 27 percent neutral.
Against Romney, President Barack Obama would lose Georgia by 8 percentage points. Against Gingrich, the president would lose Georgia by 6 percentage points.
The biggest difference between the two races: SurveyUSA says Romney would carry the state's independent voters by 11 points, but that Obama would outpoll Gingrich among independents, by 4 points.
In 2008, Obama lost Georgia to John McCain by 5 percentage points.