much more influence of evangelical he voteders. among those voting in the south carolina primary, 64% joy themselves as born again evangelical christians. that is up a bit from four years ago, it was about 60% then. so strong influence tonight from evangelical christians. we didn't have a tea party four years ago but 2010 when the tea party sprung up it was important in the governors elections and other elections across south carolina. 66%, two-thirds of those voting in today's south carolina presidential primary say they support the tea party, 25% neutral on that question, only 8% of voters oppose the tea party so evangelicals, tea party, a conservative electorate in south carolina. only 2% of those voting describe themselves as liberal, 37% say they are very conservative, 32% somewhat conservative. we have a 1re67 more cvery much conservative than iowa. many are men, 53% and 47% women. let's bring it over here for a second to show as the results come in, we'll watch this area right down in here, very important and also watch this area up here across the top of the state, very important. why? let's go back in time to show you why they matter. this is the 2008 south carolina primary. john mccain down here along the coast, the low country especially places like this, orrey county, where myrtle beach is, 5% of the state's population, more moderate, important to john mccain four years ago. this was mick huckabee, greenvil greenville, spartanburg, a lot of evangelical and tea party voters critical tonight. >> the state a little more diverse than people know. we go over to anderson cooper to help us preern some of tappreci early numbers. >> we're here with our analysts, republican strategists, democratic strategists, james carville what are you expecting tonight? >> i expect uncertain, that's generally what it is and if one is to believe the final polls taken last night, speaker gingrich is in good shape. we were in the green room talking about ever this and this has been a roller coaster ride unlike any other and i suspect it will provide us -- >> you're thrilled by that fact. >> if the last polls are correct, if last night's polls are correct, yeah, i think yes, i would be understandably thrilled by that. i think donna would probably be happy. >> absolutely, we're ready to take out some of the balloons that we've been storing away but look, anderson, this was a very interesting week in politics. jon huntsman dropped out, threw his support to romney. perry dropped out, threw his support to newt gingrich. rick santorum woke up, found out he won the contest in iowa and where are we today? we just don't know until we see the results tonight but we know one thing, the republicans are not ready to settle on one person yet. >> a lot of people are making up their minds at the last minute. >> that's one of the things we've seen in the exit polls, much more than four years ago, south carolina voters voted on the basis of what they saw in the last week. what did they see in the last week, newt gingrich surging. last night i predicted newt would win by five points and i still think newt is going to win. the question, is that surge going to continue, stop, go more than five? we'll have to wait and see what the finals are but you get the feeling that newt had a great week. >> particularly because of the two debates, playing such a critical role. >> we've said for the past year this election is not about hope and strength. it is about strength and certainty. people feel the country is in decline, want a strong leader to do something about that. mitt romney was attacked this week. kind of weakened response, confused on several issues. newt gingrich was attacked this week, very strong. so we're going to see i think tonight is, who is emerging as the alpha dog out of south carolina. gingrich has been dead three times in this campaign and you just can't, you know, the guy keeps coming back. >> the difference is rasputin would probably get more votes in the general election than newt would. any of y'all see a bigger day in presidential politics than last thursday, more news and more different stories drummed up. >> it's extraordinary when you think about how this week completely changed, the narrative at the beginning of the week was the northwestability of mitt romney winning, no one is talking about that. >> i think this could be history here in the making. we've never seen somebody win iowa, somebody win new hampshire, and then somebody different go on to win south carolina, and then if newt gingrich turns out to be victorious, this evening, he's going to say nobody's ever won the nomination without winning south carolina. so we're really watching history here in the republican party, because if he is, if he does emerge as the winner it's going to be a very different race from anything we have ever seen. >> only a week ago we were talking about history in the making because mitt romney looked like he was going to be the first person in history to win the first three contests. and now it looks like he may be, we may have the first time in history nobody has won two out of the first three. >> this is terrible for the coroner's business, because everybody said newt was dead and looks like he is coming back strong. >> the margins matter here a lot, how much, if there's a gingrich victory, is it a small victory? is it a big victory? who comes in third? who comes in fourth? there are a lot of sub questions here that are extremely important. >> and a lot to go over, wolf, we got a long night. >> we certainly do. two of the candidates especially we're watching those races closely, the stakes enormous on this night for both mitt romney and newt gingrich. let's go to their campaign headquarters right now. candy crowley is over at mitt romney headquarters, jim acosta at newt gingrich headquarters. candy first to you, "believe in america" we see the big sign behind you. they're getting ready for something tonight, either a celebration or maybe not so much. >> reporter: well, listen, you know, if this was the night we were going to start talking about northwestabiliinevitabili be. prepare to hear these two words "long haul" if he does not win tonight. in the past few days as mitt romney's numbers have fallen and newt gingrich's number have risen his staff and strategists and those outside the campaign supporting him have begun to talk about the fact that they believe he is better prepared, better funded and better staffed for the long haul, for all those races that come after south carolina. you can also expect a little something different from romney. he has in the past couple of days really begun to press newt gingrich about reports from the ethics committee about reports of that investigation into speaker newt gingrich. today he sent the romney campaign sent newt gingrich a 15th anniversary cake to mark the day that the house reprimanded then speaker gingrich for ethics violations, so in addition to the long haul expect some hardball, wolf. >> getting nastier by the day. headquarters set the scene for us there, jim. >> reporter: i'm inside the room where newt gingrich hopes to deliver his victory speech later tonight and if he wins here in south carolina, it will mark yet another trip back from the political dead for newt gingrich, after disappointing finishes in iowa and new hampshire he seized an opening here in south carolina, came back with a vengeance, and really you know, really seized on a venue that has paid dividends throughout this campaign for him and those are the debates. when he turned those questions back on the moderators, back on the media, that warmed the hearts of conservatives in south carolina. almost every voter i talked to said it's those debates that has won this race or won this vote for newt gingrich, and wolf, i have to tell you, there's been all of this talk about how the democratic party only has eyes for mitt, only seems to be talking about mitt romney. i could just tell you a few moments ago we saw the chairwoman of the democratic national committee, debbie wasserman schultz in this room so they're starting to pay attention to the speak per >> what was she doing at newt gingrich headquarters? >> reporter: she's doing media interviews, talking to the press, talking about i think speaker gingrich's record, for the longest time they've really only been focusing on mitt romney. i thought it was notable to see her in the room here tonight. >> very interesting. jim, stand by. two other candidates running of course, ron paul and rick santorum, they're going for every vote they can get as well and likely to influence the outcome. dana bash is over at rick santorum headquarters, joe johns is covering ron paul. dana, first to you. what is going on over there? >> reporter: well, wolf i want to tell you where i am, i am in what will be in about an hour the war room for rick santorum. we are at the citadel in charleston and it looks empty and the reason is because the real headquarters is not too far from mt. pleasant. there polls are going to be open for another 50 minutes or so, they're still working the phones trying to get every last potential santorum voter to the polls. in a short while they'll be here. now we have three people here, but they are getting ready, setting up what they call the war room. it's all electronic and waiting to get calls from santorum volunteers and staffers who are at precincts all over the state, ail little more than 2,000 to text and e-mail and call them with the results. tension here is pretty high because as you can imagine, they thought they were going to do pretty well in south carolina but as we've seen from the polls, rick santorum is now in third or sometimes fourth place, which is not a good sign but he still says he's going to carry on to florida no matter what. >> thanks very much, dana, we get back to you. joe johns is over in ron paul headquarters, getting ready for something over there as well, joe. >> reporter: that's for sure, wolf. unconventional candidate, unconventional campaign party site. this is a saloon, called jillian's, it's in downtown columbia. as you can see a lot of people here, many young people who fit the demographic of ron paul, the people who are his closest and most ardent followers, and it's a bar. it's also the place where he's going to end up on stage, hopefully, later this evening. ron paul had a huge rally here last night, hundreds of people so if that many people show up tonight, it should be quite an event. ron paul has been very realistic about the state of south carolina. he's been campaigning lightly here, even went up to washington, d.c., to do a vote in the house of representatives earlier this week. he is pushing hard, but looking sort of past florida, wolf, on to the caucus states in nevada and minnesota, has already made television ad buys there, and perhaps isn't going to spend a lot of money on tv ads in florida. wolf, back to you. >> we'll be hearing all the speeches tonight as they unfold. joe, we'll get back to you. we're certainly counting down to the top of the hour, and the first results from south carolina, the polls will close at the top of the hour. will newt gingrich pull off his first primary win? stay right here. you will find out. on my journey, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. we get the first results from the south carolina primary at the top of the hour, about 45 minutes away. we could project a winner then or it could be a long night. you won't want to miss a moment of it, that's 45 minutes from now. right now let's go inside some of the polling places for the final minutes of voting in south carolina, don lemon is in lexington. shannon, what are you seeing? >>. >> reporter: we're here at the eastland church of greenville county and 00 voters have showed up here election officials tell me so far, less than half of the estimated 1,800 in this precinct but although this is one of the smaller polling places, this county is huge. we've been mentioning greenville county is the most populist and the most republican so this is where the candidates are fighting it out. this is where they want to win and will be a bellwether for the results tonight. whoever does well here, mitt romney, newt gingrich or whatever could forecast a really good night for them because of the number of conservative voters in this county. >> shannon, thank you very much. don lemon is in lexington, south carolina, don, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, we're seeing a lot of rain earlier. it certainly didn't cooperate today and that really hindered the turnout here, low turnout across the state. we had been hearing from people at the polling place. we want to talk about the process we heard so much about what happened in iowa. what happens is they divide the alphabet in half. you go here, you give one of the young ladies your driver's license and identification, they check your name, you sign it here and they give you one of these blue cards, you take the blue card, hand it to one of these gentlemen over here, they walk you over and what they do is they take this thing, anderson, called a peb, a personal electronic ballot, they stick it in this machine. this records your vote, that records your vote, that way there is at least a double recording of your vote, they double check it and what you do when you come here just like any other polling place in the country, you grab one of these stickers. >> i appreciate you voting. >> says "i voted" stick it on your lapel and they tell you "appreciate your vote" and you're on your way. again the weather didn't cooperate this morning. we got here about 7:00 this morning. there were people lined up, middle of the day it started raining and that really killed things here and just about 45 minutes as you said, some people are starting to show up now that the rain has gone away but they've only got a few more minutes, anderson. >> don thanks very much. we'll check to see how turnout is across the state and if the weather had a big impact and who that might help and/or hurt. 40 minutes until the polls close. >> i suspect the weather did reduce it a bit. see how much it wound up doing. back to john king at the exit poll. we get more information by the minute. what else is coming? >> numbers are fascinating. we told you a moment ago who voted today, 64% evangelicals, two-thirds support the tea party. what's on their mind as they vote? what is the most important candidate quality? 45%, not quite half but 45% of the voters today can defeat president obama. south carolina republicans are looking for a strong general election candidate to beat the president. that's one thing on their mind today. they also came, you get their mood, want to know the mood. are you worried about the economy? giant number, 7% very worried. 19% somewhat worried. look at that, just about everybody who voted today more than 90% are very, very worried. 98% very, very worried about the economy. no surprise there then if they walk into the polling booth worried about the economy, what is the most important issue? not apportion. evangelical voters only % say it's abortion. tea party only 23% say it's budget deficit, 4% illegal immigration. 61% the weak and struggling u.s. economy. >> it's still "the economy stupid" not calling you stupid but it's still the economy stupid. >> call me what you want. 9.9 unemployment in the state of south carolina. we know the economy will be the number one issue nationally. not a sur fries there at all. this is a bit of a surprise because of the power of the tea party there. this tells you 9.9% unemployment, they are struggling, that's what they want. >> let's go back anderson is with erin burnett. it's a fascinating state, south carolina, guys, and what we've seen have been unique examples of politics unfolding in this state. >> and we've seen some dirty politics in the last couple of days with fake e-mails sent around, it's been a fascinating battle in south carolina, which is about to be resolved within this hour. what are you checking on tonight? >> we're looking at, john interesting talking about the economy being the number one issue and you're driving across the state today you see it. this is a state that has a lot of economic issues. almost everyone worried about the economy. here's why. take a look at unemployment. we've broken this down by the four key regions in this battleground state and as you can see, all four of them have unemployment rates that are above the national average, the national average 8.5%, as you can see the area that comes closest is the low country, where you have hilton head, you have charleston and also a right to work state. you've got a new boeing plant, 787 dreamliner is going to be coming off the assembly line starting in march so you're starting to see a little bit of improvement there. i want to zone in here on the midlands, where columbia is the capital and what you can see here is where the capital s unemployment rate right in line with the national average. you've got government jobs. you have university of south carolina education jobs. the other side of the state, where i spent some time with newt gingrich, orangeburg, south carolina, 15.3%. >> there is some positive economic news in the state. >> there is positive economic news and let me bring that up. this might surprise people, housing prices. ground zero, biggest asset for almost every american is their home and the ground zero for the economy and let's show you what we see in south carolina. so okay, anderson, this doesn't look so great, right? charleston area, retirees, second home, hilton head, down 14% from the peak in housing prices. 10% in the center of the state, 2% in the piedmont, unchanged up at myrtle beach and pee dee. nationally, 24% in housing crisis compared to the united states. no matter where you go in south carolina' better than that and that's a little bit of a sign of hope for the state. >> good news there. erin we'll continue to check in with you. back to our analysts over here. how much are you watching turnout, and who will, if there is low turnout because of the weather or lower turnout who might that help in. >> obama. >> it would be indicative, matching the 2008 numbers in iowa and in new hampshire in the republican, they're supposed to be gassed up, they have to exceed those numbers. i guess if you would take conventional wisdom it would hurt romney because his supporters are believed to be less passionate than the others of other people but i it every to my republican colleagues about that. >> you see more men than women which is not often the case. gingrich is stronger with men. romney has been stronger with women. >> but in south carolina, men have clearly ruled in that particular state, but in 2,573,000 republicans paymented in the primary in 2008, it was about 450,000, so the weather hinders elderly people from voting, less enthusiastic people from voting and of course more passionate people tend to turn out if the weather is bad. so i think tonight you'll see a mix of perhaps the ron paul factor, because they're the most passionate but also the most organized campaign can typically turn out their voters as well. >> here is the trend you want to be on the lookout for. the democrats had record breaking turnout in 2008 all boards. they're not going to repeat that model. republican turnout and james and i differ about this but republican turnout was a record in 2008, got broken in 2012 in iowa. record in 2 240u 8 in new hampshire, broken in 2012 inment has ham. donna's right, 455,000 republicans voted i