His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago,Rick Santorum won the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Tuesday, an unexpected trifecta that raised fresh questions about Mitt Romney’s ability to corral conservative support.
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With his triumphs, Mr. Santorum was also suddenly presenting new competition to Newt Gingrich as the chief alternative to Mr. Romney, the front-runner. Where Mr. Gingrich has won one state, South Carolina, Mr. Santorum has now won four, including Iowa.
His performance added another twist to an unruly nominating contest that has seen Republican voters veering among candidates and refusing to coalesce behind anyone. It came after Mr. Romney scored back-to-back victories in Florida and Nevada that had led to predictions that he was finally on a straight march to the nomination.
The results on Tuesday shook the political world, which appeared to once again make the mistake of believing the Republican race for the presidency was finally set on a stable trajectory. But it was an open question whether the defeats were a momentary embarrassment or a prolonged setback for Mr. Romney.
His disappointing night notwithstanding, Mr. Romney goes into the next round of primaries and caucuses much better financed than his opponents in what will be much more of a nationwide campaign, capped off by the 11 Super Tuesday competitions on March 6. But the enthusiasm in the race is no longer his alone; his front-runner’s label appears to have lost its shine.
Mr. Santorum’s victory in Missouri was symbolic. The vote will not affect the awarding of delegates, which will be decided at district and state conventions later this year. But more Republicans participated in the Missouri primary than in the Nevada caucuses. And his victory in Colorado was a genuine upset in a state that Mr. Romney easily carried in 2008.
Combined with the victory in Minnesota, it gave him an important lift that his campaign hoped would translate into an infusion of new donations and support from the conservative Republican voters — evangelicals and Tea Party adherents — who have told pollsters all year that they are searching for someone whom they view as a true conservative.
The victories were Mr. Santorum’s first since the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 — a victory awarded only after the fact. And he used them to reassert himself as the leading insurgent challenger to Mr. Romney, though he told cheering supporters at his headquarters in St. Charles, Mo., that he was setting his sights higher than that.
“I don’t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney,” Mr. Santorum said after thanking God for getting him through the “dog days” of the campaign and the illness of his daughter Bella. “I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”
With the Colorado results still outstanding, he said the Republican voters in Missouri and Minnesota had sent a message to Mr. Romney, declaring: “Maybe in Massachusetts, they were heard particularly loud tonight.” And he called Mr. Romney an imperfect conservative messenger, saying that on health care and environmental policy, “Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama.”
But the three victories for Mr. Santorum also place a fresh burden on him as he tries to swiftly build a structure to compete with Mr. Romney’s battled-tested campaign team. His aides predicted that the evening would bring an outpouring of financial support. He also may be able to expect more help from the “super PAC” that supports him, the Red, White and Blue Fund. Its leading benefactor, themutual fund executive Foster Friess, was standing directly behind Mr. Santorum as he gave his victory speech.
Asked by e-mail whether he would invest more heavily in the super PAC, Mr. Friess wrote back, “With him doing so well tonight, he won’t need me!”
And Mr. Santorum, whose appeal has been built on a populist message and a loyal following among conservative voters, now has the opportunity to get a fresh look by Republican voters as the nominating contest spreads across the country.
Mr. Romney appeared in Denver before there were enough returns in Colorado to project a victor. And he appeared to stumble some as he began his remarks to a subdued crowd by saying, “I’m pretty confident we’ll come in No. 1 or No. 2,” and acknowledging “a good night for Senator Santorum.”
Still, he declared, “I expect to become our nominee with your help,” before starting an address that recalled Mr. Obama’s convention speech in Denver in 2008 and what he said were its many failed promises of a vastly improved economy.
Mr. Romney’s aides played down the significance of the night, noting that he did not compete very hard, especially in Missouri, and adding that four years ago Senator John McCain had lost many state races before ultimately winning the nomination.
Yet the stinging defeats could prompt a re-examination of Mr. Romney’s message and a recalibration of his strategy that has focused more on President Obama than on his Republican rivals. His advisers have brushed aside questions about the palpable lack of enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy, but he will now have to address those concerns.
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Ron Paul signing his autograph on dollar bills for supporters during a campaign stop Tuesday in Coon Rapids, Minn.
If there was any bright spot for Mr. Romney, it was that Mr. Santorum’s new strength promised to potentially split the anti-Romney vote in two with Mr. Gingrich, reducing its potential threat.
Speaking before the results in Ohio, where he was campaigning, Mr. Gingrich said the results should raise doubts about what has been portrayed as Mr. Romney’s inexorable march to the nomination.
“I think the big story coming out tonight is that it’s very hard for the elite media to portray Governor Romney as inevitable after tonight is over,” he said.
Mr. Gingrich was not on the ballot in Missouri, helping to create Mr. Santorum’s opening; but he was competing in Minnesota, where the party is known for the religious conservatism of a former Republican candidate, Representative Michele Bachmann.
The outcome of the races in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday highlighted the peculiarities of the Republican nominating contest as it turns into a state-by-state delegate fight. In Missouri, more than 200,000 voters cast ballots, yet no delegates were awarded. In Minnesota and Colorado, only a fraction of voters participated in the caucuses, but the contests were seen as more legitimate because delegates will be awarded this spring based on the voting.
The newly emboldened Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, was now joining with Mr. Gingrich in a vow to take the campaign all the way to the Republican convention in Tampa this summer. Representative Ron Paul reminded supporters on Tuesday that he, too, hoped to continue collecting delegates and appear at the convention.
Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Santorum predicted that the results would “change the direction of this race.”
He had been hoping to stanch the momentum that Mr. Romney had from his recent victories in Florida and Nevada. All three states that held contests Tuesday have very conservative Republican electorates that are believed to include large numbers of the sort of evangelicals and Tea Party adherents who had flocked to Mr. Santorum’s candidacy in Iowa.It was a turnabout from four years ago, when Mr. Romney won in Colorado and Minnesota as the so-called conservative alternative to the man who became the Republican nominee in 2008, Senator John McCain.
But Mr. Romney is hoping to do well in the elections in Arizona and Michigan in three weeks, as well as in the Super Tuesday contests next month, when he is expected use his organizational and financial advantages to maximum effect.
So the evening appeared to mete out the most punishment to Mr. Gingrich, as Mr. Santorum’s aides argued Tuesday’s results proved that their candidate, not Mr. Gingrich, was the true conservative alternative to Mr. Romney.
Mr. Gingrich was not on the ballot in Missouri, which his campaign dismissed as a “beauty contest,” and by Tuesday he appeared to have so given up on Colorado and Minnesota that he spent the day in Ohio, which votes on Super Tuesday.
Throughout the day Mr. Gingrich kept his focus on Mr. Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate.” And, predicting that Mr. Romney could finish in Colorado with 20 percentage points less of the vote than he had four years ago, he said on CNN Tuesday, “After tonight, you’ll see this is a wide-open race.”
