CHARLESTON -- In a move out of the television show “Survivor,” West Virginia’s Feb. 5 Republican Convention included everything from forming alliances to voting off a front-runner.

And in the end, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee walked away with the big prize — West Virginia’s support in his bid to become president.

The support carried with it 18 delegates to this summer’s national convention and a big push for Huckabee on one of the nation’s biggest polling days — Super Tuesday.

“I think we made a statement today that there are conservative Republicans in West Virginia,” sad Betty Bailey, a delegate to the convention from Pleasants County and the president of the state’s Republican Women who voted for Huckabee. “I came in undecided – although I thought I would probably vote for Romney. But then heard Huckabee and was swayed.”

The state’s support of Huckabee surprised a lot of political watchers who thought presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a shoe-in for the West Virginia’s delegates. Romney walked into the convention with a strong base of support and a very organized campaign.

But things changed during the convention. The convention’s rules stipulated that in order for a candidate to win the convention, he needed to have a majority of votes. Delegates representing each county voted twice.

During the first round, Romney was in the lead with 464 votes of the 1,133 cast, for a total of 41 percent. Huckabee was in second place with 375 votes, or 33 percent. Fellow presidential candidates John McCain and Ron Paul received 176 and 118 votes respectively.

Since none of the candidates had a majority of the votes, delegates had to vote a second time — but this time for just the top three vote-recipients. And that’s when everything changed.

During the break between voting, representatives of McCain’s and Paul’s campaigns urged their supporters to put their votes behind Huckabee. The alliance worked.

By the time the second vote took place, Huckabee soared into the lead, receiving 567 votes, or 51 percent, while Romney received 521 votes, or 47 percent. McCain received 12 votes from some die-hard delegates who continued supporting their candidate.

But Republicans overall thought the convention was a success.

“It gave us a feeling of participation in the process,” said Dorothy Horn of Wyoming County who attended the convention with her husband, Huey. The Horns said they were fans of McCain and wore stickers on their shirts attesting to their support. But after the first vote, they knew they would have to change. “I think the outcome overall was fair.”

However, Romney’s camp took a different approach. A few hours after the convention wrapped up, Romney’s campaign manager Beth Myers said the alliance between McCain, Huckabee and Paul was just another “Washington back-room deal.”

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a back-room deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change,” Myers said. “Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today's first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington back-room deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party."

Mitt Romney 521 votes

Mike Huckabee 567 votes

John McCain 12 votes