Mitt Romney spared 'romp' in Alabama, Mississippi by split conservative vote (+video)

It’s now a two-man race for the Republican presidential nomination.

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A resurgent Rick Santorum swept primaries in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, upending the race for the Republican presidential nomination yet again and nudging Newt Gingrich toward the sidelines.

Rick Santorum’s sweep of the Alabama and Mississippi primaries has solidified the former Pennsylvania senator’s position as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney – and ensured that the GOP nomination race will extend long into the spring, if not all the way to the party convention in August.

The big question is whether Newt Gingrich of Georgia – who came in second in both primaries despite his Southern roots – will stay in the race or step aside to allow the non-Romney vote to consolidate. On Tuesday night, the former House speaker showed no sign he was ready to give up.

Another question is whether Mr. Romney, who failed to manage expectations for his performance in the Deep South, will shake up his campaign team in a bid to reassure donors. The Michigan-born former governor of Massachusetts had predicted he would win Alabama, even as he established that the Southern contests were an “away game” for him.

Romney’s losses were mitigated by victories in the Hawaii and American Samoa caucuses and the fact that all four of Tuesday’s contests will award delegates on a proportional basis. He came in a close third in Mississippi and Alabama, fewer than 3 percentage points behind Mr. Santorum in Mississippi and 5.5 points in Alabama.

The delegate math still favors Romney, a point he emphasized in a statement late Tuesday.

“I am pleased that we will be increasing our delegate count in a very substantial way after tonight,” Romney said.

• In Mississippi, Santorum won 32.9 percent, Gingrich got 31.3, Romney got 30.3, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas got 4.4 percent.
• In Alabama, Santorum won 34.5 percent, Gingrich got 29.3, Romney got 29, and Congressman Paul got 5 percent.
• In Hawaii’s caucuses, Romney won convincingly with 45.4 percent, Santorum got 25.3 percent, Paul got 18.3 percent, and Gingrich got 11 percent.
• Totals for the American Samoa caucuses were not available at press time, though the Associated Press declared Romney the winner.

Out of 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, Romney has 485, versus 246 for Santorum, 131 for Mr. Gingrich, and 47 for Paul, according to the Associated Press’s partial delegate count based on Tuesday’s results.

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