Santorum wins Deep South caucuses

BIRMINGHAM — Conservative White House hopeful Rick Santorum surged to two startling, come-from-behind wins Tuesday in the Deep South, in a dramatic shakeup of the Republican presidential battle.

Santorum’s victories in Alabama and Mississippi gave his campaign a huge boost and delivered a stinging rebuke for Mitt Romney in the battle to be the Republican nominee to take on President Barack Obama in November elections.

The results were also bad defeats for former House speaker and southern native Newt Gingrich, as the two states were seen as mustwins for his flagging campaign.

Santorum’s sweep of Alabama and Mississippi highlighted how months into the race Romney, still the frontrunner, has failed to seal the deal and convince US voters that he is the strongest candidate to face Democrat Obama.

Santorum trumpeted his conservative credentials after the victories, in a pointed jibe at Romney, who critics have labelled a moderate, liberal former governor of Massachusetts.

“We did it again!” Santorum told ecstatic supporters in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he had traveled after campaigning heavily in Alabama and Mississippi.

“The time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against Barack Obama.”

Santorum said his grassroots campaign consisted of “ordinary folks doing extraordinary things — sort of like America.”

“We will compete everywhere,” he said, as he ridiculed Romney’s inability to win over voters in several states despite massively outspending his rivals on campaign advertising.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Santorum was ahead in Alabama with 35 percent of the vote, with Gingrich and Romney tied for second place on 29 percent, according to CNN figures.

In neighboring Mississippi the race came down to the wire, with Santorum on 33 percent, Gingrich at 31 and Romney at 30, with 99 percent of votes counted.

Libertarian congressman Ron Paul of Texas finished a distant fourth in both states. The island state of Hawaii — Obama’s birthplace — was also holding a caucus on Tuesday to choose the party’s nominee.

Romney issued a statement congratulating Santorum on the win, but adamantly insisted he remained best placed to win the nomination.

“I am pleased that we will be increasing our delegate count in a very substantial way after tonight,” said Romney, who has about 40 percent of the 1,144 needed to become the party’s presidential nominee.