DETROIT (AP) — Mitt Romney aimed his message directly at the hearts and pocketbooks of Detroit's vote-rich suburbs, saying he was a native son who felt their economic pain. The strategy paid off, an exit poll showed.

Michigan's economic misery was on the minds of voters across the state during the Republican primary election Tuesday. But nowhere was it a bigger issue than in Macomb and Oakland counties, next-door neighbors that have become Michigan's central battleground during recent presidential elections.

Although considerably more affluent than nearby Detroit, they are staggering from the auto industry's decline and desperate for help from the next president.

"We could use someone with a good business head," retired consultant Miriam Kottler, 70, said after casting her ballot for Romney in Southfield. "Unemployment hits everybody one way or another and it's going to get worse."

More than one in five voters lived in Macomb and Oakland counties. Of those, about six in 10 picked the economy as their primary concern when asked to choose among four issues. Fewer than 20 percent named the war in Iraq, while about one in 10 selected illegal immigration or terrorism.

Statewide, the economy was uppermost for just over half the electorate, with the other issues far behind.

About seven in 10 voters in Macomb and Oakland counties described the nation's economic situation as "not so good" or "poor" — only slightly less than in Wayne County, which includes Detroit. A similar portion of the electorate felt that way in northern Michigan, where the crucial tourism industry depends on a flourishing statewide economy.

About six in 10 voters had an unfavorable view of the economy in southwestern Michigan, including Grand Rapids, the state's second-largest city.

Almost no Michigan GOP voters rated the nation's economy as excellent, while three in 10 called it good. Romney beat John McCain by 21 points among those with a positive view of the economy, while they ran about even among those who were negative.

Romney is "a businessman and he has a track record of solving problems," said Norm Dolbow, 48, a self-employed engineer in Traverse City.

About two-thirds of GOP voters said they were from the suburbs. Romney carried nearly four in 10 of those voters.

Romney also neutralized Mike Huckabee's strength among religious voters, running even with the Iowa caucuses champ among white evangelicals and beating him among all but the most frequent churchgoers, according to the survey for The Associated Press and television networks. McCain ran close to Romney among non-evangelicals while Huckabee lagged badly.

As Romney shifted campaign resources out of South Carolina and into Michigan last week, the former Massachusetts governor emphasized his family ties to this state. His father, George, had headed American Motors Corp., and was a three-term governor in the 1960s.

Apparently it worked. More than four in 10 Republican primary voters said Romney's ties to Michigan were very or somewhat important to their vote, and 58 percent of them voted for him.

The results are from exit polls Tuesday in 40 precincts around Michigan for the AP and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. The Republican primary survey interviewed 1,362 voters and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points; the Democratic poll interviewed 997 voters and the sampling error was 5 percentage points.