Poll: Santorum vaults into national contention

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are tied nationally, according to polling conducted in the final two days of a Fox News survey conducted after Santorum’s surprising three-state caucus sweep earlier this week.

The full survey began two days prior to Santorum’s victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. Between Feb. 6-7 Romney led the field with 35 percent of the support, followed by Newt Gingrich at 26 percent, Santorum at 17 percent and Ron Paul at 14 percent.

In polling conducted on Feb. 8-9, after Santorum’s caucus sweep, he and Romney were tied at 30 percent, followed by Gingrich at 16 percent and Paul at 15 percent.

Taken as a whole, Romney leads the poll at 33 percent, followed by Santorum at 23 percent, Gingrich at 22 percent and Paul at 15 percent, but the momentum is clearly with Santorum, whose support nearly doubled after Tuesday’s caucuses.

Another troubling indicator for Romney, who has had the advantage so far in the primary season of being viewed as the presumptive nominee, is that 80 percent of GOP primary voters think someone other than Romney could still win the nomination, and more than half say it’s too soon for any of the candidates to drop out.

Romney’s rivals have criticized him for his wealth and time as an executive at Bain Capital, calling him out of touch with average Americans. The Fox News poll indicates that attack might be sticking: 32 percent said Santorum is the most “in-touch” with average Americans, double that of Romney and Paul, who both came in at 16 percent.

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