Santorum wins Louisiana

GOP candidate Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary Saturday, beating front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state. “We‘re still here. We are still fighting. We still believe, as this race really shows,” Santorum told supporters in Green Bay.

Although the victory gives Santorum bragging rights and 10 more delegates, it does not change the overall dynamics of the race; the former Pennsylvania senator still dramatically lags behind Romney in the hunt for delegates to the GOP’s summertime nominating convention. Even so, Santorum‘s win underscores a pattern in the drawn-out race.

The under-funded underdog has tended to win in Bible Belt states that include Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. Romney, a deep-pocketed, highly organized former Massachusetts governor, has persistently struggled in such heavily conservative regions.

Neither candidate was in the state as Louisiana Republicans weighed in. Nor was former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was trailing in Louisiana.

Romney tweeted his congratulations to Santorum: “Congratulations to Rick Santorum in LA. I look forward to the contests to come and to defeating @BarackObama in November.”

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AJP