Religion: 1 – Economy: 0

Nightmare for favored Republican candidate Mitt Romney: His main competitor won two primaries in the Deep South.

The battle for the Republican nomination continues; favorite Mitt Romney was unable to win in either Alabama or Mississippi. With 96 percent of the Mississippi vote counted, Rick Santorum was ahead with 33 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich and Romney in third. The same spread exists in neighboring Alabama, where 79 percent of the vote had been counted as of this morning. There the result was 35 percent Santorum, followed by Gingrich at 30 percent and Romney bringing up the rear with 28 percent. The fourth candidate, Ron Paul, ranked as an also-ran.

“We did it again!” Santorum said to his supporters, just after winning the party’s primary election to be the Republican nominee for the White House in November. With that, the former Pennsylvania senator achieved a major election goal: Victory in evangelical conservative southern states in his attempt to catch up to Romney. Santorum’s religiously oriented campaign got more traction than Romney’s economy-focused strategy.

The former Massachusetts governor won six out of 10 states on Super Tuesday and set a goal for himself to at least win in Alabama this Tuesday. A win on such strange terrain could herald a breakthrough for him. Before polling began, he appeared confident of victory: “Senator Santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign and is trying in some way to boost his prospects,” he told CNN.

Gingrich On the Brink of Dropping Out

Despite that, the primaries might signal a beginning. With wins in Mississippi and Alabama, Santorum will have continued his winning streak in the primaries. Romney leads in the latest prognoses with 459 delegates to Santorum’s 203, but with the trend in the most recent primaries, he has steadily lost ground to his main rival.

Both candidates are a long way from the 1,144 needed to clinch the nomination at the August convention.

For southerner Newt Gingrich, who considered these two primaries as “home games,” losing both states was a bitter defeat and possibly the end for his candidacy. Other than his home state of Georgia, Gingrich has won only South Carolina. Observers now expect his financial backers to start jumping ship.

If Gingrich throws in the towel, it could work to Santorum’s advantage. The significant Illinois primary, where 69 delegates are up for grabs, could give a new twist to everything.

Santorum has only a fraction of the money available to the Romney campaign but laughingly remarked, “Well, for someone who thinks this race is inevitable he’s spending a whole lot of money against me.”

On the same day, primaries were held in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Samoa. Results there aren’t expected until sometime on Wednesday.