Mike Huckabee,  Mitt Romney,  Newt Gingrich,  President 2012,  Sarah Palin

President 2012 South Carolina GOP Poll Watch: Huckabee 26% Romney 20% Palin 18% Gingrich 13%

This is what the latest PPP poll reports. These numbers are without favorite son and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint running for President.

If you take DeMint out of the equation Huckabee is the biggest beneficiary. He would lead the state with 26% to 20% for Romney, 18% for Palin, 13% for Gingrich, 7% for Paul, 4% for Pawlenty, and 3% for Daniels.

If you’re going to declare winners and losers in this poll the winners are Huckabee and Romney and the losers are Palin and Gingrich. Not winning South Carolina in 2008 punctured Huckabee’s chances at winning the nomination but it looks like he’d be able to change that outcome if he gave it a second try. Romney has been polling fourth in a lot of other Southern states so for him to be within striking distance of Huckabee and beating Palin and Gingrich with this particularly conservative primary electorate are very good signs.

The Biggest Losers in this poll are Georgia’s Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin who trails the more moderate Romney.

The results are probably worst for Gingrich. He led the first time we polled South Carolina last May, but has lost half of his support since then. Given South Carolina’s next door status to his native Georgia this is easily the early primary state where he would have the most decent chance of winning but he looks to be losing momentum. For Palin a third place finish behind the relatively moderate Romney in a state with a very conservative Republican primary electorate does not bode well for her overall prospects.