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WASHINGTON: Rick Santorum won crucial primaries in Alabama and Mississippi in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, dealing a devastating blow to Newt Gingrich and securing his position as the chief conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney.
Tuesday's results were a setback for Romney, who had hoped to show he could muster the support of evangelical Christian voters in America's Deep South in his quest to be his party's choice to challenge President Barack Obama in November's election.
But they were especially bad news for Gingrich, who desperately needed a win to show he remains a viable candidate.
''We did it again,'' Santorum exulted before cheering supporters in Lafayette, Louisiana, which holds its primary March 24. He said it was time for conservatives to unite in an effort to defeat Romney. Gingrich said he had no plans to leave the race.
In Alabama on Tuesday night, with 97 percent of the precincts counted, Santorum had 35 percent of the vote, while Gingrich and Romney each had 29 percent. Returns from 99 percent of Mississippi's precincts showed Santorum with 33 percent, Gingrich 31 percent and Romney 30 percent.
The fourth candidate, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, did not compete actively in the two contests and lagged far behind in single digits.
Romney still holds a commanding lead in delegates to the convention in Tampa, Florida, in August. The former Massachusetts governor is much better funded and has a superior campaign organization. What's more, he carries the backing of the party establishment.
But the conservative base distrusts his one-time moderate views on important social issues like abortion and gay rights.
Slower still to fall in behind Romney have been voters in the Deep South, where he has yet to win a primary. He won in Virginia, where Santorum and Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot, and in Florida, where he carried counties with many transplanted retirees from northern states but lost those regions in northern Florida most culturally aligned with the old South.
Romney congratulated Santorum in a written statement, but noted that ''with the delegates won tonight, we are even closer to the nomination.''
