Surge in support for Santorum puts him up front with Romney

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are neck-and-neck in the Republican Party nomination race, according to Gallup.

THE RACE FOR THE Republican Party’s nomination ahead of November’s presidential election across the US continues to heat up.

Rival candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are almost neck-and-neck in the latest opinion poll ratings.

The latest Gallup poll shows that Santorum’s support has surged in the past week from 16 per cent to 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, Romney’s support has dipped slightly in the last seven days and now stands at 32 per cent, leaving a tight two-point margin between the pair.

Gallup says that Santorum’s surge has pulled support from all of his main rivals as support for Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul all dipped slightly over that period.

Santorum’s improved ratings come on the back of his recent primary hat-trick; the former Pennsylvania senator won last week’s primaries in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. Over the weekend, though, Romney won in Maine.

The candidates have a few weeks to campaign ahead of the next primary on 28 February, in Michigan.

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