SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — After stumbling in the first two major states up for grabs, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney finally crossed the finish line first, winning Tuesday's Michigan Republican primary.

Romney faced tough competition in his boyhood state from Arizona Sen. John McCain, who vaulted back into the race for the White House by capturing New Hampshire's primary one week ago. But McCain's message to Michigan — that Motor City jobs were gone and not coming back — did not play well in in the heart of the nation's auto industry, allowing Romney to chalk up his big win.

"We're celebrating here in Michigan tonight, I'll tell you that," a jubilant Romney told several hundred supporters crowded into a hotel ballroom in this Detroit suburb. "Guess what they're doing in Washington? They're worrying."

Romney pledged to continue working to strengthen the economy, a message that clearly resonated with Michigan voters and one he said he'll bring to South Carolina, Nevada and Florida, which are the next states to vote. "I will never accept defeat for any industry here in America. We'll fight for them," Romney said to cheers.

His consultant in Michigan, Katie Packer, said the key to his victory was simple. "He had a message of hope," Packer said smiling. "Hope sells."

It did to Randy McCoy, an engineer in the auto industry who was out of work for seven months after losing his job at GM in that company's massive cutbacks three years ago. During Romney's victory party, McCoy said that Michigan has "been an awful lonely state, government wise. It seems like the federal government looks over it, around it, but not at it"

Gwen Blandy, a young homemaker, was also buying, explaining she's been a Romney supporter since he led the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from scandal to success. "We are forgotten by a lot of politicians," Blandy said, rocking the youngest of her three children outside the ballroom. "A lot of people here have been aching for jobs."

On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton rode support from women and older voters to victory in a meaningless contest in which she faced little opposition, except for a protest campaign engineered by supporters of Barak Obama and John Edwards urging the electorate vote "uncommitted" showing their lack of confidence for the former first lady's candidacy.