Romney Back in the Hunt As Michigan Votes

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, late last night won the primary election in Michigan. He pushed ahead of John McCain to claw his way back into the race and blow the Republican nomination for presidential candidate wide open.

Minutes after exit polls were released McCain conceded defeat. First indications pointed towards the core of the Republican party swinging in favor of Romney by a wide margin - 40% to just 22% for McCain - while independents failed to turn out in sufficient numbers for McCain to make up the difference. The third place contender, Mike Huckabee, said: "I won Iowa, John McCain won New Hampshire, and Mitt Romney won Michigan."

Romney fought a traditional campaign that tub-thumped core Republican values, backed up by saturation TV adverts that cost him more than $2m in the past month in Michigan alone. In a state that is suffering from dire economic problems as a result of the decline of the car industry, he promised to work "every day" as US president to get the state back on its feet.

He also tugged at voters' heart strings, referring constantly to his family connections in Michigan - his father George was governor here for three terms and Romney was born and brought up in the state. His stump speech repeated stories of patriotism, heroism and the national flag.

Last night senior advisers in the Romney campaign said their man had garnered support by presenting himself as a politician who could fix problems which other candidates regarded as intractable. They highlighted the difference between Romney who pledged to Michigan to fight to bring back manufacturing jobs, with McCain who argued controversially those jobs had been lost forever and had to be replaced with new forms of employment.

A snowfall of up to three inches in some parts of the state is believed to have been partly to blame for a turnout that polling station clerks described as slow or moderate.