Mitt Romney routed Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary Tuesday night, rebounding from the previous week’s defeat with a commanding victory and taking a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination. Despite the one-sided setback, Gingrich vowed to press on. The race was over not long after the polls closed, with both Romney and Gingrich acknowledging the situation when the race was called by a number of news organizations. At the time. returns from slightly more than half of Florida’s precincts showed Romney with 47 percent of the vote, to 33 percent for Gingrich. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 13 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 7 percent. Neither mounted a substantial effort in the state. Again, a major and early win for Mitt Romney in the Florida primary, the first big-state Republican primary election of the campaign season.