Romney also lost New Hampshire's primary, to McCain in a race in which religion was less of an issue. But he beat back a challenge from McCain in Michigan's primary last week to re-energize his flagging campaign. Romney also earlier won Wyoming's little-noticed party county conventions.

Romney boosted his odds in Nevada with a whirlwind tour of the state over the past two days. It also didn't hurt his chances that many of his Nevada staff and volunteers were LDS, as were many supporters who turned out for events he held in Las Vegas, Elko and Reno since Thursday.

On Saturday, that support was converted into caucus votes. Romney totaled 51 percent to Paul's 14 percent. McCain was third with 13 percent.

Exit polls showed that half of Romney's overall vote in Nevada came from LDS voters and that Mormons comprised 26 percent of those attending Nevada's GOP caucuses — 95 percent voting for Romney. About one in five GOP caucus-goers were white evangelical or born-again Christians, and Romney won them too, with 37 percent, although 22 percent favored Huckabee.

Romney left Nevada early Saturday for Florida, where Republicans go to the polls on Jan. 29. But before leaving, he stopped at a Las Vegas caucus site, Palo Verde High School.

Although the GOP caucus was not set to begin for more than an hour, a small but enthusiastic crowd of supporters turned out to see the party's only candidate who campaigned in Nevada in recent days besides Paul, a former Libertarian candidate for president.

In the parking lot of the high school, Romney delivered a quick campaign speech from the back of a pickup truck, handed out doughnuts and posed for pictures during a 45-minute stop on an unusually cold day for southern Nevada.

He thanked his Nevada team for its hard work, as well as out-of-state volunteers from California and Utah. "So far, with two golds and two silvers, we're feeling pretty good," Romney told them,

Seeming relaxed, he joked about his appearance the night before on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," saying "it takes one giant head to know another giant head," and introduced a niece who lives in California and her husband, the inventor of a super-powered pogo stick that can carry a user over a car.

"Running for president and jumping over cars on a pogo stick — in both cases you can be badly injured," Romney said, laughing. When someone joked that a helmet was needed for both pursuits, he patted his carefully combed hair and said, "I've got mine on at all times."