Mormons key for Romney

Mormons almost unanimously supported Mitt Romney in his easy victory Saturday in Nevada's Republican presidential caucuses, a preliminary survey found.

Mormons comprised roughly a fifth of those attending Nevada's GOP caucuses, and more than nine in 10 were voting for Romney, according to early results from the survey conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. Romney is a Mormon, and his religion has been cited as a problem by some Republican voters.

Those identifying themselves as Republicans " the bulk of the voters " were also voting heavily for Romney, while independents were leaning toward Ron Paul. Romney and Paul were the only GOP candidates to campaign much in Nevada.

Nevada Republicans called the economy and illegal immigration the top problems facing the country, and Romney was leading among those citing both issues.

Other pockets of outsized strength for Romney included voters with more than $100,000 family income, older voters and those who placed a priority on a candidate's experience.

The results were from a poll conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International as voters entered 20 GOP caucus sites in Nevada. The preliminary results were from interviews with 352 voters, and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 8 percentage points.