Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is now the Republican front-runner for the GOP nomination, according to CBS News.
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A new CBS/New York Times poll shows Santorum leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by three percentage points. Santorum has the support of 30 percent of GOP-primary voters in the poll, following by Romney at 27 percent. Ron Paul is now in third place at 12 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich at 10 percent. Santorum received only 16 percent of the vote in a similar poll conducted last month.
The up-and-down GOP race for the nomination took a turn last week when Santorum swept three primary states, which many political experts say raised his campaign from the dead.
Santorum, who tied with Romney in the Iowa caucuses in December, struggled afterward until winning Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota last week. Romney won the latest caucus this past weekend in Maine.
Santorum's support in the latest poll shows growing support with the Tea Party, social conservatives and evangelical Christians.
One thing we have learned about the Republican race to unseat President Obama is that right when you think there's a front-runner, think again. One of the many concerns Republican Party leaders must be having is how long they can go without a true front-runner. The Democratic Party must be happy about all of this and hoping that the GOP's inability to rally around one candidate at this point will extend into a reluctance among GOP voters to support one come November.
Read more at CBS News.
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