A new Gallup tracking poll has former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum up by 10 points nationally over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential race.
The poll, conducted Feb. 15-19, shows the enormous strides Santorum has made over the past several weeks. After upset victories in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri, conservative voters appear to be coalescing around Santorum as a more conservative alternative to Romney.
The Gallup poll, released today, finds Santorum in the lead with 36 percent of the vote, followed by 26 percent for Romney. That’s a huge reversal from a Feb. 6 Gallup poll, which was conducted right before Santorum’s victories and which had Romney leading Santorum by more than 20 points. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who won the South Carolina primary in late January, has been steadily dropping in the polls since then. The new poll puts him in third place nationally, with 13 percent, followed by Texas Representative Ron Paul with 11 percent.
