Mitt Romney won the Florida primary last night with a resounding 46 per cent of the vote.
Newt Gingrich won 32 per cent of the vote, with 95 per cent of the votes counted. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul won 13 and 7 per cent respectively.
Mr Romney's 14-point victory in the fourth largest US state increases the probability that he will be the Republican party's nominee to challenge President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.
In his victory speech, Mr Romney alluded briefly to the vicious competition with Mr Gingrich, but said he was confident the party would unite. He cast himself forward to the presidential race, contrasting his own vision with that of President Obama.
"There are fewer candidates than when the race began," Mr Romney noted. "But the three gentlemen left are serious and able competitiors. And I congratulate them on another hard-fought contest."
Democrats "have been watching" the Florida race, Mr Romney continued. "They like to comfort themsleves with the thought that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and week..... A competitive primary does not divide us; it prepares us."
Mr Romney spoke in Tampa, where the Republican convention will begin on August 27. "Ours will be a united party with a winning ticket," he predicted.
Mr Romney blamed Mr Obama for 35 months of unemployment at over 8 per cent. "Under this President, Americans have seen more job losses and more home foreclosures than under any president in modern history," he said.
During the Florida campaign, Mr Romney said he'd met a father who was terrified of losing his family's home, senior citizens whose retirement plans were shattered, and Hispanics whose American dream was disappearing.
"I stand ready to lead this party and our nation," Mr Romney said, describing himself as a businessman who spent his life outside Washington. He repeated the words "my leadership" three times, in reference to his business experience, his stewardship of the Salt Lake City Olympics, and his time as governor of Massachusetts.
Mr Romney accused Mr Obama of wanting "to grow government and continue to amass trillion dollar deficits". He promised to cut government, balance the budget without raising taxes, repeal the health care Bill and "make America the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators."
Adopting a theme first raised by Texas Governor Rick Perry, then taken up by Mr Gingrich, Mr Romney accused Mr Obama of "ordering religious organisations to violate their conscience" . He said he would "insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it" and "restore America to the founding principles that made this country great."
In one of his more cutting reference to Mr Obama, Mr Romney promised: "Together we will build an America where 'hope' is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker." Under a Romney presidency, there would be no "cradle-to-grave assurances that government will always be the solution."
Mr Romney said he wanted the White House to reflect "the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become."
Mr Gingrich was favoured to win Florida after he defeated Mr Romney by 12 points in South Carolina on January 21. But the former Speaker of the House performed poorly in two debates in Florida; he later said he knew Mr Romney was attempting to provoke him and put all his energy into maintaining his calm.
Mr Gingrich confused Floridians with an inconsistent message and image, sometimes assuming the aura of a dignified statesman, at other times adopting angry and radical language. He was also the target of a relentless barrage of negative television advertising costing more than $14 million. "We are going to have people power defeat money power in the next six months," Mr Gingrich said in his concession speech.
Mr Gingrich did not congratulate Mr Romney. "It is now clear that this will be a two person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate," he said.
Nor did Mr Gingrich acknowledge defeat. Placards in the room saying "46 States to Go" were to remind "the elite media... who said I was dead in July, and that I was gone after Iowa. We are going to contest every place and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August."
Mr Gingrich launched into a populist appeal, stressing the word "people" when he quoted Abraham Lincoln saying "We have government of the people by the people and for the people."
If Mr Obama is re-elected "it will be a disaster for the US," Mr Gingrich warned. "You can't imagine how radical he will be in his second term."
Mr Gingrich listed his past achievements, promising a new version of his 1994 'Contract with America' for the presidential campaign and detailing what he would do on the day of his inauguration. "If you are comfortable with the way American has decayed... we can just manage the decay," he said sarcastically. There were "folks in both parties who are quite comfortable managing the decay."
Mr Gingrich had earlier claimed that he could defeat Mr Romney if Mr Santorum's conservative voters rallied to him. But their combined score of 45 per cent was a point less than Mr Romney's.
CNN's exit poll showed that Florida's population centres voted for Mr Romney, while rural areas with a strong Tea Party presence voted in greater numbers for Mr Gingrich. Mr Romney nonetheless won 40 per cent of votes from self-described Tea Partiers, to 38 per cent for Mr Gingrich. The most important issue, cited by 62 per cent of voters, was the economy. Married women were unfavourable to Mr Gingrich, voting 51 per cent for Mr Romney and only 28 per cent for Mr Gingrich – doubtless the result of his past reputation as a philandering husband.
Mr Romney won 54 per cent of Florida's important Hispanic vote – a huge improvement over the 14 per cent he won in the 2008 Republican primary. That is the statistic most likely to worry the White House. Mr Obama won 51 per cent of the vote of Florida in 2008 and needs the Sunshine State to gain re-election.