With 94% of the vote counted, Romney had taken 39%, McCain a distant 30% and Mike Huckabee 16%.

The relief was palpable in Southfield where Romney and his supporters gathered. They had all been aware that the stakes could not have been higher — defeat in Michigan, the state of his birth, could have been fatal for his presidential chances.

Electoral paralysis

But it leaves the Republican party in a quandary. With Huckabee in Iowa, McCain in New Hampshire, and now Romney each with big wins to their name — and with Rudy Giuliani still waiting in the wings — the party appears close to a state of electoral paralysis.

The former governor of Massachusetts sounded a belligerently populist note in his victory oration, vowing to take the fight to Washington. “Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism,” he said, adding that Washington was worried because “they know that America now understands that Washington is broken and we are going to do something about it.” Romney’s Michigan campaign focused heavily on core Republican values — God, patriotism and tax cutting. He adopted the same mantra of change as heard from Barack Obama, but insisted his version of change was very different.

In his concession speech, McCain insisted that though the result made his road to the nomination harder, he was not deflated. “We’ve gotten pretty good at doing things the hard way, too, and I think we’ve shown them we don’t mind a fight, and we’re in it.”

Exit polls of Republican voters carried out by CNN gave clues as to why Romney stole the prize. More than 40% of Republicans said that his local ties — his father George Romney was a popular governor of Michigan, and Mitt was brought up in the state — were an important factor behind their decision.