Great night for Santorum supporters like me.

Santorum projected to win Minnesota, Missouri GOP Contests

Published February 07, 2012

| FoxNews.com

Rick Santorum is projected to win the Minnesota Republican presidential caucuses, after earlier winning the non-binding Missouri primary.

Santorum is also ahead in early returns out of Colorado. The former Pennsylvania senator could be looking at the best night of his campaign since Iowa, in which he was belatedly declared the winner. For the first time in weeks, he — and not Newt Gingrich — was posing the biggest challenge to frontrunner Mitt Romney.

With 37 percent of precincts reporting in Minnesota, Santorum was ahead with 46 percent. Ron Paul was pulling in second with 26 percent, followed by Romney and Gingrich.

Santorum was also leading in Colorado, followed by Gingrich in second, and Romney and Paul at the back. A total of 70 delegates are up for grabs in those two states Tuesday, though the caucuses are just the start of a lengthy delegate-allocating process.

In Missouri, the primary is effectively a statewide straw poll, as it sets the stage for the delegate-awarding caucuses a month from now. Still, Santorum cruised to a crushing victory. With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Santorum was leading with 55 percent of the vote. Romney had 25 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 12 percent. Gingrich was not on the ballot in that contest.

The returns appear to challenge assertions by Gingrich that the GOP presidential contest is a two-person race between him and Romney. Gingrich, though, hardly competed in the three states Tuesday, instead focusing his attention on other contests down the primary calendar. He campaigned Tuesday in Ohio, which holds its election on March 6, “Super Tuesday,” as the other candidates made last-minute appeals in Colorado and Minnesota.

Santorum, speaking in Colorado, urged caucus-goers earlier to do something Tuesday night that “no one was expecting.”

“Provide a little surprise to the inevitable march of Governor Romney,” Santorum said.

Tuesday’s contests were the first of the season in which multiple states were holding contests on one day. Up next, Maine concludes its caucuses this Saturday, and primaries will be held in Michigan and Arizona later in the month.

Romney so far has won three contests, in New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada. Gingrich has won one, in South Carolina.

Romney entered Tuesday’s competition with a healthy lead in the delegate count — at 101 delegates.

Gingrich trailed with 32 delegates, following by Santorum with 17 and Paul with nine. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the nomination.

Though Missouri’s primary Tuesday was largely symbolic, the contest was still expected to cost state taxpayers about $6 million.