Santorum wins Alabama, Mississippi primaries

A resurgent Rick Santorum swept primaries in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, upending the race for the Republican presidential nomination as he sought to push Newt Gingrich toward the sidelines.

Mitt Romney ran third in both states.

"We did it again," Santorum told cheering supporters in Lafayette, La. He said it was time for conservatives to unite in an effort to defeat Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is the faraway leader in the competition for Republican National Convention delegates.

Romney bristled in the hours before the votes were counted, saying Santorum was "at the desperate end of his campaign."

But it was Gingrich with the most to lose as he struggled for political survival in a part of the country he hoped would fuel one more comeback in the unpredictable race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama.

He congratulated Santorum on his victories, and poked at Romney. "If you're the front-runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front-runner," he said in Birmingham, Ala.

In Alabama, with98 percent of the precincts counted, Santorum was pulling 35 per cent of the vote, Gingrich had29 per cent and Romney 29 per cent. Representative Ron Paul trailed with five per cent.

Returns from 99 percent of Mississippi's precincts showed Santorum with 33 per cent, Gingrich 31 per cent and Romney 30.

Paul, the fourth contender, made little effort in the states on the day's ballot.

Santorum won the primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, but he didn't gain much relative ground in the race for delegates against frontrunner Romney.

Romney offset Santorum's gains by winning caucuses in Hawaii and American Samoa Tuesday. For the day, Romney picked up at least 40 delegates and Santorum got at least 34. Newt Gingrich got at least 24 delegates and Ron Paul got at least 1. Eleven delegates were still to be determined.

Even if Santorum got all the remaining delegates, however, the race between Romney and Santorum would remain essentially unchanged.

Romney leads the overall race for delegates with 494, followed by Santorum with 251 and Gingrich with 131. Paul trails with 48. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination for president.

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Evangelicals played an outsized role in both primary states, underscoring the challenge to Romney. In Mississippi and Alabama, 80 per cent or more of voters leaving their polling places said they were born again Christians or evangelical. Those voters have been reluctant to rally to Romney's side in the primaries and caucuses to date. Among them, Santorum bested Romney by 9 points in Alabama and 4 points in Mississippi.

More broadly, the exit polls showed a primary electorate that was conservative, determinedly Republican and profoundly unhappy about the government.

In Mississippi, more than eight in 10 voters said they were dissatisfied or angry with the federal government, while in Alabama, 80 per cent said they would definitely vote for the Republican candidate against Obama next fall, no matterwho is nominated.

While Alabama and Mississippi are among the most conservative states in the country and share a long border, the exit polls showed significant differences in the voters' reaction to the candidates.

In Mississippi, Romney had the support of 30 per cent of primary voters who earn under $50,000 US a year, compared with 26 per cent in Alabama. He drew the backing of 33 per cent of Mississippi primary voters with no college education, compared with 27 per cent in Alabama.

Only about half of all voters in each state said they work fulltime for pay, and they, too, voted differently one state from the other.

Santorum outpolled Romney, 39 per cent to 23 per cent among that group in Alabama. The two men tied among that group in Mississippi.

As has been true in earlier primaries, the economy was the most important issue to voters, and an ability to defeat Obama the most important quality when it came time to pick a candidate.