Santorum Support Surges Among Tea Party Republicans and White Evangelicals

At Pew Research, "Santorum Catches Romney in GOP Race" (via Memeorandum):

Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters.

Santorum is now the clear favorite of Republican and GOP-leaning voters who agree with the Tea Party, as well as white evangelical Republicans. Currently, 42% of Tea Party Republican voters favor Santorum, compared with just 23% who back Romney. Santorum holds an almost identical advantage among white evangelical Republican voters (41% to 23%).

More at the link.

The bad news is that neither Santorum nor Romney best President Obama in head-to-head match-ups. That will of course tighten once the GOP nominee is known, but it's clear that the president is benefiting from perceptions of improved economic conditions and there's little indication that social issues are dragging down Obama's numbers. Indeed, the most troubling findings here for Republicans are increasing negative perceptions of Mitt Romney in the GOP electorate. A majority says that Romney is not conservative (51 percent) and he flip-flops on the issues (53 percent). If the consensus remains that Romney is most likely to win the nomination, then the former Massachusetts Governor will face strong headwinds with the base leading up to the fall campaign. Frankly, at this point Santorum's way more likely to energize GOP voters. He's way more authentic and he's not burdened near the degree that Romney is when it comes to the campaign's big issues, especially health care.

See also Hot Air, "Crumble: Santorum passes Romney nationally in Pew, within two points in Gallup."

And note that Santorum's also ahead in Michigan, according to Public Policy Polling. The primary's scheduled for February 28th, so Romney's got some time to shore up his position, but a loss there will be devastating --- Michigan is home turf for Romney. His dad was the state's governor in the 1960s and he won the Michigan primary in the 2008 campaign against John McCain.

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks until then, that's for sure