Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney laid out his plan to win the Republican nomination for president Monday night, the St. Petersburg Times reports.
Speaking at a fundraiser in Tallahassee, Romney reportedly downplayed expectations about his chances of winning the Iowa caucuses and said that a tea party favorite would likely win there. He noted that while he ran ads in the Hawkeye State for a year before the 2008 caucuses, he has not spent any money doing so this time around because a big investment would only be likely to net him second or third place.
Romney then predicted he would win the New Hampshire primary, a state where he has been leading in the polls for months, and said that while South Carolina is up for grabs, a big win for him in Florida would clinch the nomination.
While Romney has stayed steady in polls for months, dissatisfaction with his candidacy among conservatives has kept him from rising above 30 percent approval. A Public Policy Polling survey released Monday found Romney trailing both embattled pizza mogul Herman Cain and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the new front-runner for the nomination.