BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Republicans Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich face off in a pair of high-stakes presidential primaries in Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday, with polls showing a virtual three-way dead heat in both states.
The contests are critical for all three top contenders in a volatile Republican White House campaign that already has featured numerous surges, collapses and mood swings.
Gingrich needs a win to keep his struggling campaign afloat, while Santorum hopes to knock Gingrich out of the race and consolidate conservative opposition to Romney, the shaky frontrunner.
A surprise win for Romney in either state, however, would be a critical breakthrough that could put him on a path to the nomination by proving his ability to appeal to the party's core conservatives in the Deep South.
Polls found the three contenders within a few percentage points of each other in both states, with Romney showing strength as Gingrich and Santorum split the states' big bloc of very conservative, evangelical voters.
"It's very close, we think we have a good chance to win both states," Gingrich told Fox News on Monday night. "We do have a chance here to break through."
Romney has opened a big lead in delegates in the Republican race to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama, but has been unable to capture the hearts of conservatives who distrust him for some of the moderate stances he took as governor of liberal Massachusetts.
Romney rejected the notion on Monday, however, that his inability to put away his conservative rivals would mean none of the candidates would have the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the convention in August.
"Can you imagine anything that would be a bigger gift to Barack Obama than us not having a nominee until the end of August? That is just not going to happen," Romney said on CNBC.
All three contenders spent the final day before the votes campaigning in Alabama and Mississippi. Romney held a rally in a driving rainstorm in Mobile, Alabama, while Gingrich and Santorum appeared separately at two candidate forums, one in Biloxi, Mississippi, and one in Birmingham, Alabama.
'YOUR VOTE REALLY MATTERS'
"The primary tomorrow really matters and your vote really matters," Gingrich, the former House speaker, said in Birmingham.
"I hope you will decide that having an experienced leader who's actually helped do these things before and who is capable of taking Obama head on is what we need as a party," he said.
In Biloxi, Santorum accused Romney and Gingrich of falling for liberal science on the issue of climate change, and he urged the crowd in Birmingham to "elect a conservative, because that's the one who's going to be most electable" against Obama in November.
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and staunch social conservative, has gained strength among the deeply conservative and evangelical voters who make up a big chunk of the Republican electorate in the two states.
He won conservative Tennessee and Oklahoma last week, while Gingrich kept his campaign alive with a win in his home state of Georgia.
But Romney, who fares the best against Obama in head-to-head poll match-ups of any Republican, has argued his experience as the head of a private equity firm and running the Salt Lake City Olympics makes him the best choice for resurrecting the ailing economy.
Steve Pittler, a voter from Mountain Brook, Alabama, said he thought Romney had the best chance to beat Obama.
"It's more of an ?anyone but Obama' attitude, and who's the one who can win against him? I think that's Romney," Pittler said.
The other remaining Republican presidential contender, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, largely skipped the Alabama and Mississippi contests to focus on later states in the process.
Gingrich will hold a rally in Birmingham to watch the results in the two southern primaries on Tuesday, but his top rivals are already looking to the next contests.
Romney plans to campaign on Tuesday in Missouri, which will hold caucuses on Saturday, and Santorum will watch the results come in with supporters in Lafayette, Louisiana, which will have a March 24 presidential contest.
Mississippi and Alabama have a combined 90 delegates, which will be awarded to the candidates proportionally based on their vote totals.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-three-way-battle-deep-south-001550716.html
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