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Posted: 9:00 PM- SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Michigan voters rocketed Mitt Romney back into the presidential race Tuesday, giving the native son his first high-profile victory.

Two losses down in his bid for the White House, Romney needed to catch a break from the state where his father's legacy still resonates - and voters delivered. The son of the former three-term Michigan governor bested Arizona Sen. John McCain, thanks to Romney's pitch that his turnaround skills could soothe the state's economic ills.

McCain, who won New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, was second, with Mike Huckabee, who routed Romney in Iowa, taking third.

Democrats, meanwhile, debated in Nevada, ignoring Michigan because the early election's violation of party rules rendered it meaningless. Hillary Clinton won because she was the only major Democrat remaining on the Michigan ballot.

The action was all on the Republican side and Romney made the most of it.

Cheers erupted at his victory party as cable news channels called the race for the former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

"This is the beginning of a comeback for America," Romney said to a raucous crowd packed into a ballroom here. "Only a week ago a win looked like it was impossible but then you got out and told America what they wanted to hear."

Campaign advisers watched from an adjacent bar, grinning widely.

Between chants of Romney's first name, the presidential candidate pledged to fight on for jobs, a pitch that helped seal his victory in this state facing economic crisis.

"Tonight proves that you can't tell America there is something they just can't do," Romney said, taking a not-so-veiled shot at McCain's remark that Michigan's lost auto-industry jobs were not coming back. "Tonight is the victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism."

McCain had just begun his concession speech when Romney decided to take his victory turn before TV cameras. Every cable station covering the election immediately switched to the winner, cutting off McCain abruptly.

In the brief remarks that were broadcast live, McCain took the defeat in stride.

"For a minute there in New Hampshire, I thought this campaign might be getting easier. . . . We've got pretty good at doing things the hard way," said McCain, a veteran and Vietnam prisoner of war. "I think we've shown them we don't mind a fight."

A win for Romney boosts his momentum going into three important primaries, in South Carolina, Nevada and Florida, and the big event, Super Duper Tuesday with 22 primaries up for grabs.

Political scientists warned that Romney needed a victory after two sound defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney had outspent competitors in both those states but still garnered only second place.

Romney now leads in none of the three primaries this weekend and next Tuesday, and faces a difficult challenge convincing evangelic voters to back him.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, vowed he would win South Carolina on Saturday. But polls there show he is locked in a fierce battle with McCain.

Craig Ruff, a senior policy fellow at Public Sector Consulting in Lansing, Mich., says three different victors in three different states so far makes the GOP race wide-open even after contests that are meant to narrow the field.

"It just introduces more fluidity into the Republican presidential process," Ruff says. "Even with Romney's home field advantage, what it shows is the Republican rank and file have not locked in a choice. They have not yet calculated who they're favorite candidate is or the best candidate for the White House. It's essentially a donnybrook."

Romney, who would be the first Mormon president if elected, has faced voters wary of his faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Entrance polls in Iowa caucuses offered a real-life example of that fear, with a large evangelic turnout backing Huckabee.

"There is a small but significant group that is not happy about a Mormon becoming president," says Quin Monson, assistant director of the LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

Some of those wary of Mormons are on the right side of the political spectrum, some on the left, Monson says, and the next few state primaries will tell whether Romney's faith plays a bigger role.

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