CHARLESTON, S.C. – Maybe this won’t be a Mitt Romney cakewalk after all.

Polls here show former House Speaker Newt Gingrich surging in South Carolina, suggesting his fiery exchange over food stamps in a debate on Monday may have benefited him. A new NBC/Marist poll showed Gingrich has closed the gap with Romney to 10 points.

At the same time, the Iowa Republican Party is expected to announce today that a closer look at the results in the January 3 caucus showed that former senator Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes of ahead of Romney in Iowa. And Texas Gov. Rick Perry has dropped out of the race as of Thursday.

WATCH MSNBC ‘DAILY RUNDOWN’ COVERAGE OF PERRY’S EXIT FROM THE RACE:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What all this means is Romney, who was expected by the end of the week to have won all three first states, may not be such a strong front-runner after all. Santorum may have actually “won” Iowa. And if Gingrich gets most of Perry’s votes, the former Speaker could win in South Carolina.

That would mean in the first three primaries, Romney only won New Hampshire, where he had a major advantage as the ex-governor of a nearby state. The shifting dynamics virtually guarantee Romney will have to fend off Santorum and Gingrich in Florida on January 31 as well.