Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney created history on Tuesday with his convincing victory in the New Hampshire primary, becoming the first Republican candidate who is not an incumbent president to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Romney won the New Hampshire primary with 39 percent of the votes, soundly defeating his closest rival, Texas Representative Ron Paul at 23 percent, and former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman at 17 percent. Romney is now the front runner in the Republican presidential race.

Romney's victory was not surprising, with polls showing his convincing lead in New Hampshire. The question was who would come in second. Texas Governor Rick Perry did not contest the primary, focusing instead on the South Carolina contest scheduled for January 21. Paul, Huntsman, former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and former Pennsylvania Governor Rick Santorum, however, competed aggressively in New Hampshire. Although Huntsman focused his campaign on New Hampshire for months, he only managed to finish third. Newt Gingrich, once the front runner of the Republican race, finished fourth with 10 percent. Santorum, who narrowly lost in Iowa, slipped to fifth place with nine percent of the votes.

Despite Romney's strong finish, all the candidates will move on to South Carolina, where again polls show Romney comfortably leading. All the other candidates have expressed confidence that with almost two weeks of campaigning, they have time to possibly defeat Romney. Most are reminding naysayers that Arizona Senator John McCain finished poorly in New Hampshire in the 2008 presidential primaries, but went on to land the Republican nomination.

South Carolina, traditionally a conservative state, is particularly attractive for conservative candidates like Santorum, Perry and Gingrich, who hails from neighboring Georgia. A Florida win can also become a game-changer for those candidates lagging behind, as Florida is a state where the winner of the primary takes all 25 Republican delegates. This fact is paramount for Perry, who with a South Carolina win could surge in front of Romney, who has secured only 23 delegates from his two victories. Gingrich has also stated that he is placing a strong emphasis on winning South Carolina.

To win the Republican nomination, a candidate needs to earn 1,144 national delegates. Florida, which holds its primaries on January 31, is a particularly rich state with 50 delegates.

If the polls in South Carolina prove correct, and Romney continues his momentum, it will be difficult for any other candidates to surpass him, especially with polls showing his commanding lead in Florida. But, several analysts still believe that Romney remains vulnerable. He labors under a flip-flop reputation and contradicting statements that could compromise the message of his campaign. Romney still receives much backlash from other candidates for the similarities between the much criticized Affordable Health Care Act and a state healthcare plan Romney approved while he was governor of Massachusetts. And as the Republican base maintains a strong favoring of far-right policy-making, such a reputation will not help Romney among Republican voters seeking a stronger conservative to oppose the more liberal Barack Obama in the final race for the presidency.