Santorum sweep changes GOP presidential race

Rick Santorum swept the three Republican presidential contests Tuesday in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, reshaping the race and raising questions about frontrunner Mitt Romney's ability to attract broad conservative support.

More importantly, the former Pennsylvania senator's trifecta halted Romney's momentum after the former Massachusetts governor had won the previous two contests and three of the first five prior to Tuesday.

Colorado was the most competitive state of the day, with Santorum winning 40% of the vote to 35% for Romney, 13% for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and 12% for Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

After a night of returns trickling in and the lead shifting between Santorum and Romney, Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call announced Santorum was the winner.

In Minnesota, Santorum got 45% of the vote to 27% for Paul, 17% for Romney and 11% for Gingrich, with 88% of the total counted, according to the secretary of state.

The victory in a state Romney won in his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid was a strong statement by Santorum that he represents a major conservative challenge to both Romney and Gingrich, the former House speaker.

However, a low turnout in all three races signaled possible dissatisfaction among Republican voters with the candidates.

All the delegates available Tuesday came from the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses, while the Missouri primary was nonbinding with no delegates at stake.

The two caucus states didn't officially award delegates Tuesday night -- that will happen down the road at district and state conventions -- but the news media, including CNN, will use them to make unofficial delegate count estimates.

With 100% of the Missouri vote counted, Santorum had 55% to 25% for Romney and 12% for Paul, according to unofficial results. Gingrich didn't make the ballot in Missouri.

Such a dominating victory by the conservative Santorum showed his appeal to Missouri's large blocs of evangelical and tea party supporters.

"Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota," Santorum told cheering supporters outside St. Louis, Missouri, before the Colorado count had been completed.

Wearing a presidential suit instead of his trademark sweater vest, Santorum boasted of his triumph over Romney, saying "we doubled him up" in both Missouri and Minnesota.

He continued his criticism of Romney as a moderate who would be unable to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

Santorum also unleashed a harsh assessment of Obama, engaging in a responsive exchange with the crowd that repeated how the president thinks he's smarter than the American people and tells them what to do instead of listening to them.

In the GOP race, Santorum is competing with Gingrich for conservative support to try to slow the momentum of frontrunner Romney, who had won two straight contests and three of the five before Tuesday.

His sweep of all three Tuesday contests bolstered Santorum's argument that he is the strongest conservative contender to challenge the more moderate Romney for the nomination and then Obama in the November election.

"I don't stand here and claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," Santorum declared. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."

In Denver, Romney congratulated Santorum for his good night before the Colorado result was known. Rather than continuing criticism of Santorum, Romney sounded conciliatory in saying Republicans would unite behind the eventual nominee and that he expected to be that candidate.

"We are going to stand united as a party to defeat Barack Obama and restore the values that make America the greatest country on Earth," Romney said.

Perhaps in response to Santorum's success, Romney struck a populist note by telling the crowd how his father never graduated from college but went on to head a business and become governor of Michigan.

"For my dad, this was the land of opportunity," Romney said, later adding: "I refuse to believe America is just another place on earth with a map. We stand for freedom and hope and opportunity."

Earlier, Romney's campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul responded to Santorum's Missouri victory by noting no delegates were at stake. Santorum had mounted the strongest campaign in the Show Me State.

To Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair from Florida, Tuesday's results showed an underlying weakness in Romney's candidacy.

"What should have been a night where he began to consolidate Republican support instead has shown that Republicans are reluctant to get behind him," Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. "Republicans are giving the field of candidates another look, demonstrating that the more people get to know Mitt Romney, the less they like him. They know he'll say anything to get elected, and they don't want a candidate they can't trust."