Rick Santorum thrusts back into race with wins over Romney
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum speaks to supporters as his son, John (L) and wife, Karen (R), look on. Photo: Getty Images
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Rick Santorum re-emerged into the Republican race last night, claiming a trio of victories that will reinvigorate his flagging campaign and pose fresh questions for Mitt Romney's march towards the nomination.
A month after scraping out victory in Iowa, Mr Santorum once again thwarted the national front-runner by winning the Minnesota caucuses and a "beauty contest" primary in Missouri.
Early reports indicated that he also snatched a narrow win in Colorado, a state Mr Romney had been predicted to win by wide margins.
Of his confirmed wins only Minnesota will count towards the eventual nominating process, but the scale of Mr Santorum's success there will be a blow to the Romney campaign, which was pushed into third place by Texan congressman Ron Paul.
Mr Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and the race's staunchest social conservative, won 45 per cent of the vote, nearly three times Mr Romney's 18 per cent.
In a triumphant speech to supporters, Mr Santorum used the new-found attention to attack both the Republican front-runner and the Democratic president both men are seeking to defeat.
"I don't stand here claiming to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," he told a crowd in Missouri. "I stand stand here claiming to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."
Invoking the fiery rhetoric favoured by the Tea Party, Mr Santorum painted both men as elitist and out of touch, claiming the President believes "he's a privileged person who should should be able to rule over all of you" while mocking Mr Romney's ill-fated remark that he did not "care" about the poor.
In his own speech, Mr Romney graciously congratulated his rival, who he said had a "good night", but told his supporters: "I expect to to become your nominee".
He kept his relatively brief remarks focused on President Obama but at one point swiped at both Mr Santorum and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, saying: "Washington cannot reform itself and Washington will never be reformed by those who have been compromised by the culture of Washington."
While the defeat in Minnesota will be galling - Mr Romney won a landslide victory there in 2008, taking 60 per cent of the vote - the night's results did little to prise away his claim to be the race's overwhelming front-runner, with the lead in delegates, money and organisation.
His status as the most credible potential nominee was underscored by the phalanx of Secret Service bodyguards who leapt into action when glitter was thrown at him as he shook hands in Denver.
But the results once again raised questions about the unwillingness of the Republican party's conservative wing to accept Mr Romney as their nominee and were yet another sign that the race could stretch out for months to come.
The biggest loser of the night was Mr Gingrich, who came last in Minnesota and looked likely to manage only third in Colorado. His defeat at the hands of Mr Santorum means he will once again be forced to tussle for the role of 'conservative alternative' to Mr Romney - a mantle he had hoped to seize decisively with his sole victory in South Carolina.
Mr Gingrich did not campaign heavily in either Minnesota or Colorado and spent the evening in Ohio, where he did not deliver a post-results speech.
- Raf Sanchez, Washington
© Telegraph.co.uk
