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Race to White House

Santorum rattles Romney

AFP, Minneapolis
Christian conservative Rick Santorum's unexpected trio of state wins has reignited his White House bid and raised new question marks over Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney.
Santorum, written off only a few weeks ago, won caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a primary in Missouri on Tuesday — a clean sweep that represented another stunning turnaround in this topsy-turvy Republican presidential race.
The established wisdom was that Santorum was surging in the Midwest and could take Minnesota and Missouri thanks to support from evangelical Christians, but no one expected him to win out west in the Rocky Mountains.
It was a bitter blow for
Romney, who romped home in Colorado during his 2008 bid, scooping more than 60 percent of the vote.
The latest contests could reposition the Republican battle to be the nominee to take on President Barack Obama ahead of "Super Tuesday" on March 6, when 10 states vote at once and almost a fifth of all delegates are decided.
A clutch of seven February contests, including the three
held on Tuesday, will not alter the fact that Romney goes into that day the frontrunner, with a larger nationwide organization and a heavier war chest than any of his rivals.
Santorum was the big winner in Missouri's primary, with 55 percent of the vote, more than double Romney's 25 percent. In Minnesota, Santorum led with 45 percent and Romney was a distant thirdat 17percent.
The biggest shock of the
night was in Colorado, where Santorum scooped 40 percent of the vote, edging out Romney's 35 percent, according to official party results.
Santorum surprised many when he won the Iowa caucuses on January 3, the first stop in the protracted state-by-state primary process that will decide who takes on Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 general election.
In theory, Tuesday's three states held rich pickings as the four remaining candidates try to secure enough delegates to pocket the total 1,144 needed to secure the Republican nomination.
With three big wins under his belt, Romney is still the man to beat. According to CNN, Romney currently has 106 pledged delegates, Gingrich 38, Santorum 22, and Paul 20.