Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney | featured news

As the GOP presidential race shifts to the South, Newt Gingrich has a slight edge over Mitt Romney in a new Mississippi poll.

Edward Morrissey says none of the candidates hit their targets for moving ahead on Super Tuesday, but hung on just enough to keep the crown out of Romney's reach

Mitt Romney apparently pulled off a narrow victory over Rick Santorum in Ohio on Super Tuesday. But Mr. Santorum scored victories elsewhere, competing with Mr. Romney’s achievement of collecting the most delegates and all but ensuring another round of intense infighting on the road to the Republican presidential nomination. Far from bringing new clarity to the race as some in the party had hoped, Tuesday’s results gave every candidate cause to keep driving forward —including Newt Gingrich, who won a definitive victory in Georgia. They also dashed Mr. Romney’s hope of using the night to assert himself as the inevitable nominee.

NBC News projects that Rick Santorum has won in Tennessee; Mitt Romney seen capturing Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia while Newt Gingrich takes Georgia; Ohio is too close to call and Oklahoma is too early to call.

The last time the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential race met on a debate stage, all eyes were on Newt Gingrich, who was trying to ride the momentum off his surprise victory in South Carolina.

The battle for the Republican presidential nomination heads into a potentially decisive phase over the next two weeks with contests in 13 states that could finally answer some of the questions that have defined the race.

A resurgent Rick Santorum hopes to spring his next big surprise in Michigan. Newt Gingrich looks for a campaign revival in the Bible Belt. Mitt Romney has his home state of Massachusetts, and the luxury of picking his spots elsewhere, if not everywhere, as the race for the Republican presidential nomination roars back to life.

Newt Gingrich hedged whether he could win his old home state on Super Tuesday as he campaigned through the vote-rich Atlanta area with Herman Cain at his side amid incursions from Mitt Romney and a surging Rick Santorum.

Mitt Romney can argue that winning ugly is still winning, especially in a contest he could not afford to lose. But Romney’s decisive victory in Florida came at a price. He aggravated Newt Gingrich’s hostility to him, with all the trouble that could entail, and left behind a dispirited Republican electorate in a state the GOP needs to win this fall.