(CNN) Birmingham – Romney, rejected again by Southern conservatives in the Tuesday primaries, was battling for second place with Newt Gingrich.
The latter had staked his campaign on a Southern strategy after winning South Carolina and Georgia.
In Alabama, Santorum won 35% of the vote. Gingrich and Romney both had 29% — although Gingrich was about 2,000 votes ahead with 99% of the vote counted — and Ron Paul had 5%.