Mike Huckabee won the first of 21 states being contested by the Republican presidential candidates on Super Tuesday, pulling out a victory in the West Virginia Republican convention.

Huckabee won in the second round of voting, even though Mitt Romney led after the first round. The former Arkansas governor won with 51.5 percent to Romney's 47.4 percent, pulling ahead after John McCain's delegates apparently defected to his side.

The convention had to go into a second round of voting after no candidate took a clear majority the first time. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was knocked out, and Huckabee, Romney and McCain moved forward.

Paul finished fourth with 10 percent among the 1,133 participating delegates in the first round, while Romney took 41 percent and Huckabee took 33 percent. McCain, who started the day in New York City before heading to California, reached the second round with 15 percent.

But before Huckabee's surprising turnaround in the second round, McCain delegates told FOX News they had been instructed by the campaign to throw their support to Huckabee.

McCain delegate John Vuolo said former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer approached him and other McCain supporters at the convention and told them he had spoken to McCain, and that the best thing to do was to support Huckabee in the hope that Huckabee could beat Romney in this winner-take-all state.

That account could add fuel to Romney's claim that Huckabee is only undercutting his support base, and that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain. Huckabee has fiercely denied that claim.

Romney Campaign Manager Beth Myers issued a statement after the West Virginia vote blasting McCain.

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change."

McCain and Huckabee both denied any wrongdoing.

"I have never had a conversation with (Huckabee) or any of his people having anything to do with that," McCain told reporters in San Diego when asked about his delegates shifting to Huckabee. "And I think it frankly is a bit insulting to Governor Huckabee who won that by alleging such a thing."

Huckabee said later in Little Rock that "there wasn't a deal."

"I thought (Romney) was saying yesterday no whining," Huckabee said. "So is it no whining or whining? He can't even keep a straight answer on the whining or no whining question ... Now we win, always someone has an excuse for it. If we don't, somebody will say we didn't do something right. We won."

Huckabee told FOX News after his win that there's no "personal animosity" between him and Romney, but that Romney has initiated most of the attacks on him while McCain has treated him with respect.

As to the win, he said: "We've been saying it a long time that people have been a little premature in counting us out ... This is a contest that's far from over and we're showing that today."

The Huckabee campaign said the win gives them confidence in their strategy of competing in Southern states, including Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas.

All three candidates made personal appeals Tuesday in West Virginia before voting began.

Romney, who is fighting to close McCain's lead in the polls in most Super Tuesday states, merged a call for change with a pledge to stand for conservative principles before the West Virginia convention.

"I'll make sure that the house that Reagan built is the house we live in. I'll make sure we reach across the aisle but we don't walk across the aisle. I'll make sure we live by the principles that have made this party great," he said. He also made a pitch to supporters of Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of the race, saying he admired their leadership.

Touting his turnaround on abortion, the former Massachusetts governor promised to tackle Social Security, excessive federal spending and health care access.

"Washington has not been able to deal with the problems we have," Romney told the crowd, adding: "It's time have some people who are citizens go to Washington and get the politicians out."

Romney also took aim at McCain, invoking the front-runner's support of a recent immigration bill, of stem-cell funding and for energy legislation that Romney said threatened West Virginia's coal industry.

Huckabee was candid about his lackluster showings since the Iowa caucus.

"I need you to vote for me today," he told the Mountain State audience. He cast illegal immigration as one example of what ails Washington, while also declaring that "our tax system is beyond fixing."

"This ought not to be about who waves the checkbook at you," Huckabee said.

Paul, a 10-term Texas congressman, offered himself to convention-goers as "the taxpayer's best friend." Before being knocked out of the running, he pledged to stick to a strict constitutional view of the president's fiscal, foreign policy and military powers.

To applause from supporters lining the convention hall, Paul also echoed his opposition to the Iraq war and declared that "going to war needlessly ... is not the solution." He said current policies threaten to ruin the U.S. economy and currency.

More than 1,000 delegates to the Republican national convention are up for grabs nationwide on Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day in U.S. history.

Nearly half the West Virginia delegates arrived Tuesday uncommitted to any candidate. Shirley Searls of Putnam County said she hadn't made up her mind, but was leaning toward McCain.

"He's the lesser of all the evils," she said. "I just want the most conservative candidate in there."

That didn't sit well with fellow Putnam County delegate Bob Pennington, who backed Romney.

"I'm going to have to work on her," he joked.

Yard signs and volunteers for the candidates greeted the state delegates as they entered the Charleston Civic Center, while other staffers hosted hospitality rooms inside. Several state and local candidate also courted party members.

The convention has had its critics. Some Republicans complained that the process for selecting delegates to the convention excluded too many of the party's nearly 345,000 registered voters.

FOX News' Jake Gibson, Serafin Gomez and Shushannah Walshe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.