Republican, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

Rick Santorum seized the lead in the Alabama primary Tuesday night and edged ahead of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in Mississippi, deeply conservative Southern crossroads in the struggle for the Republican presidential nomination.

Rick Santorum accused Fox News of "shilling" for Mitt Romney during an interview with Fox's Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday morning."The man has had a ten-to-one money advantage," Santorum said of Romney on the radio show "Kilmeade & Friends.""He's had all the organizational advantage. He has Fox News shilling for him every day -- no offense, Brian, but I see it -- and yet, he can't seal the deal because he just doesn't have the goods to be able to motivate the Republican base and win this election."

A win in Alabama or Mississippi for Mitt Romney on Tuesday could all but wrap up the nomination and give him a victory in one of the most conservative parts of the country.

Rick Santorum hopes to muscle Newt Gingrich out the race Tuesday and to force a face-off with Mitt Romney. But CNN's Candy Crowley reports Gingrich shows no signs of quitting.

A new poll Monday showed Mitt Romney is surprisingly strong in two Republican presidential primary contests in the South this week that are crucial to his conservative rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich may occasionally refer to a Twitter hash tag as a hash mark but he is relying on the Internet to reach out to voters, one tweet and Facebook friend at a time.

Rick Santorum won the Kansas caucuses in a rout on Saturday and Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney countered in Wyoming, a weekend prelude to suddenly pivotal Southern primary showdowns in the week ahead.

Former Senator Rick Santorum won the Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas on Saturday, CNN projected, giving him a boost going into crucial primary votes in the South next week.

Setting the stage for primary elections Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi, Republicans in Kansas gathered Saturday for their presidential caucuses. Forty delegates are at stake.

As the GOP presidential race shifts to the South, Newt Gingrich has a slight edge over Mitt Romney in a new Mississippi poll.