Santorum wins Alabama, Mississippi GOP primaries

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

Mitt Romney was running 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.

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 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," Gingrich said in Birmingham, Ala. There, he also told reporters that he vows to stay in the race and will continue on to the national convention this summer.

Santorum's two victories were worth at least 21 delegates. Gingrich won at least 17 and Romney at least 16. The split in Mississippi underscored the difficulty that Romney's rivals face in overcoming his big lead. Each of the three leading contenders won 10 delegates there with seven still to be allocated.

The day began with Romney leading the delegate competition in The Associated Press count, with 454 of the 1,144 needed to win the nomination. Santorum had 217, Gingrich 107 and Paul 47.

In Alabama, with 80 percent of the precincts counted, Santorum was pulling 35 percent of the vote, Gingrich had 29 percent and Romney 28 percent.

Returns from 93 percent of Mississippi's precincts showed Santorum with 33 percent, Gingrich 31 percent and Romney 30.

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

There were 107 delegates at stake Tuesday: 47 in Alabama, 37 in Mississippi, 17 in Hawaii caucuses and six more in caucuses in American Samoa.

Evangelicals played an outsized role in Mississippi and Alabama, underscoring the challenge to Romney.

Referring to Tuesday's contests, Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom earlier told CNN: "Our goal was to come in, take a third of the delegates. We will do that."

Meanwhile, Romney largely ignored his GOP rivals yesterday while campaigning in Missouri, which holds caucuses Saturday. Instead he ripped into Obama on health care, gasoline prices, foreign policy, the deficit and other issues.

"I'm the one guy in this race who can beat Barack Obama," he told a crowd of 400 in Liberty, Mo. "I wish, as a president, he would finally take responsibility," he said in a St. Louis suburb.