Santorum wins Mississippi primary

Rick Santorum will win the Mississippi primary, according to projections from multiple media outlets, giving him his second win in Tuesday's Southern primaries.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Santorum led with 33 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich was close behind with 31 percent, and Mitt Romney was in third place with 30 percent of the vote. Ron Paul came in a distant fourth with 4 percent.

Santorum will likely take a majority of the state's 40 delegates, a critical pickup as the GOP candidates battle to secure the 1,144 necessary to capture the nomination.

Before today's voting, The Associated Press estimated Mitt Romney having 454 delegates; Rick Santorum, 217; Newt Gingrich, 107; and Ron Paul, 47.

Voting was light in Mississippi, according to Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, despite vigorous campaigning in the days since Super Tuesday.

A Public Policy Polling survey of the state released Monday showed Gingrich with a slight edge headed into the vote, projecting the former Speaker to take 33 percent of the vote. Romney narrowly trailed with 31 percent — well within the margin of error — and Santorum rounded out the group with 27 percent.

Voters in Mississippi said that the top issue to them was nominating a candidate who could beat President Obama by a significant margin. The number of voters who put electability as their top choice nearly doubled those who voted based on experience, moral character or conservative values.

Exit polls in the state show the Republican electorate was heavily evangelical and religious. More than 70 percent of voters in the state described themselves as evangelical Christians, according to exit polls, and nearly 8 in 10 said that a candidate's faith mattered a "great deal" or "somewhat."

As in the 2008 primary, about 80 percent of Mississippi primary voters self-identify as Republican, with 17 percent calling themselves independent, and 4 percent aligning with Democrats.