MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Rick Santorum won Alabama’s presidential primary Tuesday night and pushed Newt Gingrich into second place in a state where the former Georgia congressman was looking for neighbors to invigorate his candidacy.
With 77 percent of the precincts reporting Tuesday night, Santorum had 35 percent of the votes, Gingrich 30 percent, Mitt Romney 28 percent, and Ron Paul 5 percent.
Santorum said his victory showed it’s not inevitable that Romney will be the Republican nominee.
“I just want to say first to the people of Alabama, you made a great difference tonight,” he said.
Gingrich said he still will have a significant number of delegates in Alabama and they will help him press his campaign all the way to the nominating convention in Tampa, Fla, in late August.
“Obviously I would have liked to have come in first,” Gingrich said from Birmingham.
He portrayed Romney as the night’s loser. “If you keep coming in third, you are not much of a frontrunner,” he said.
Gov. Robert Bentley met with Santorum Monday night at the Governor’s Mansion and voted for him Tuesday. Bentley said he knew Santorum would do well even though he was outspent by the Romney and Gingrich campaigns in Alabama.
“He was the most conservative of the candidates, and I knew he would appeal to grassroots voters more than the other candidates,” Bentley said.
He said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, didn’t help himself by coming to Alabama and talking about “cheesy grits” and saying “y’all.”
“It would have been better to say, ‘I don’t talk like you, but I would appreciate your vote,'” Bentley said.
Alabama’s last three GOP governors split over who was the best candidate. Former Gov. Fob James endorsed Newt Gingrich, calling him “the man to return our country to sound fiscal policy” Former Gov. Bob Riley recorded a robocall for Mitt Romney, where he called Romney “best suited to fight for our Alabama values.”
At a Montgomery polling place, Wayne Hall, a 65-year-old general manager of the paper company, said he decided on Santorum because he has strong family values and “has less baggage than some of the others.” But he said he wished there were a stronger GOP field.
“I’m not really excited about any of the Republicans and I don’t know if any of the court have a chance to beat Obama, but we’ve got to have a change,” he said.
At a polling place in Clanton, 64-year-old state employee Joe Maddox, said he voted for Romney because he has the best plan to turn around the economy and get more people working.
“I think he’s the logical choice to beat Obama. I think he’s the only electable one,” he said.
Billy Adams, an 84-year-old military retiree in Montgomery, said he was also looking for the strongest candidate to challenge the president and decided on Gingrich.
“He would be the best man to go against Obama, and he’d be a better debater,” he said.
Barbara Hall, a 41-year-old stay-at-home mom, wore a Ron Paul T-shirt to her polling place in Clanton.
“Ron Paul can stand on his voting record alone. All the others are running from theirs,” she said after casting her vote.
Romney, Gingrich and Santorum showed the importance of the Alabama primary by campaigning in the state Monday. Gingrich continued on Tuesday and was the only candidate in Alabama on election night to watch returns.
Romney performed better than his 2008 race, when he got 17.8 percent of the vote, but he was third that year like this year. The Harvard-educated New Englander talked about Alabama being “an away game” for him. He tried to appeal to Alabama audiences by saying he had tried catfish and grits and was hoping to go hunting with an Alabama friend who “can actually show me which end of the rifle to point.”
Romney backed up his spending in Alabama with a long list of endorsements from entertainment and politics, including comedian Jeff Foxworthy, Alabama lead singer Randy Owen, Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, and House Speaker Mike Hubbard.
Gingrich also received endorsements, including Senate Majority Leader Jabo Waggoner, and Ray Scott, founder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society.
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Associated Press writer Andy Brownfield in Clanton contributed to this report.
