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WINSTON-SALEM — Mitt Romney may have won Florida's Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, but he got trounced by tea partyers in North Carolina.

In a straw poll that the N.C. Tea Party sponsored to let North Carolinians "participate" in the primary, Newt Gingrich won, Rick Santorum was a close second and Ron Paul edged out Romney for third. The only candidate whom Romney beat was the faceless "other."

Romney has consistently fared poorly in other primary polls done by the N.C. Tea Party, said Nathan Jones, a former GOP state Senate candidate from Winston-Salem who organized the latest poll.

"He has never really broken above 15 or 20 percent," Jones said. "I don't pretend to know the thoughts of everyone who votes. A lot of the common thinking centers on the notion that some of the voters don't consider Romney to have tea party values."

Nathan Tabor, the chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party, said Romney's poor showing goes back to the health-care program that Romney instituted while he was governor of Massachusetts. Critics refer to the program, which requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay a fine, as "Romneycare." And, they say, it is similar to "Obamacare," or the health-reform law enacted under President Barack Obama.

"Although he states he's a conservative, people don't trust him," Tabor said.

The N.C. Tea Party is a grass-roots organization that uses social-networking media to organize meetings and discussions among tea partyers, Jones said. Its networking page lists nearly 700 members and promoted the straw poll.

More than 500 responses were posted, Jones said.

One of the questions asked: "If you could vote in the Florida Republican presidential primary on Jan. 31, 2012, who would you vote for?"

Listed as candidates were Gingrich, the former House speaker; Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator; Ron Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas; Romney; and "other." Also listed as an option was "no response."

Gingrich attracted 36.8 percent of the responses to the poll, and Santorum pulled in 33.2 percent. Paul had 14.7, and Romney got 13.1 percent. The "other" candidate got 2.2 percent.

Tabor said that Gingrich has benefited from the withdrawal of business executive Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann, the U.S. representative from Minnesota. In addition, he said, Gingrich is benefitting from the "liberal" media.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Tabor said, explaining why tea partyers may gravitate toward a candidate who, he said, does not have the most conservative record.

Gingrich also won a straw poll done in Florida on Monday by the Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. Santorum also placed second in that. Unlike the North Carolina poll, Romney beat Paul for third.

Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said on the organization's website that the tea party has played a key role in the primary.

Though the organization does not endorse candidates, Martin expressed support for the three -- Gingrich, Santorum and Romney -- who were able to attend a telephone forum sponsored by the organization on Sunday. In it, the candidates were given 10 minutes to respond to questions and 90 seconds to make a closing statement.

"The three participating candidates all pledged to decrease spending below the current spending level their first fiscal year in office, and vowed to repeal government-controlled health care. As long as tea party supporters hold the elected officials accountable, regardless of whom is elected, our priorities will be addressed," she said in a statement on the website.

It is still unclear whether Romney can gain wholehearted support from tea partyers if he eventually wins the GOP presidential nomination, Jones said.

"Only time will tell. There's a lot of debate on that issue. Some are the kind who say: 'I can only vote for a person based on the purity of how they match to my ideals.' Other people say, 'It's more important to vote for the candidate who will win.' But those sentiments are not unique to tea party people."

John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University, said that unlike the 2008 GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Romney has a chance to win over tea partyers.

"In 2008, John McCain's issue positions were at odds with conservatives in a way that made it tough for him to draw their strong support in the general election campaign, but Romney's current issue positions are unlikely to create this same sort of difficulty, once things turn to the general election," he said.

Asked which candidate would win the Florida primary, 58 percent of responders to the N.C. Tea Party poll chose Romney. Gingrich got 31.4 percent, Santorum got 6.1 percent and Paul received 2.5 percent.