Santorum Takes Lead In New Poll

(NewsCore) - Rick Santorum has taken his first national lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new poll that put him ahead of Mitt Romney by a double-digit margin.

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released Saturday showed the former Pennsylvania senator leading Romney 38 percent to 23 percent among "usual" Republican primary voters. Seventeen percent of those polled favored Newt Gingrich and 13 percent backed Ron Paul.

Last week, Santorum swept the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses, as well as the Missouri primary, and PPP found that his recent rise in the polls can be attributed, in part, to his high level of popularity.

Sixty-four percent of voters see him favorably, while only 22 percent have a negative view of him, according to the new poll. Meanwhile, Republicans seem to be souring on both Romney, who has a 44-43 percent favorability rating, and Gingrich, whose favorability rating has dropped into negative territory at 42-44 percent.

Santorum is solidifying his lead among several key demographics in the Republican Party. He has won over voters who describe themselves as "very conservative," receiving the backing of 53 percent of those voters, compared to 20 percent who chose Gingrich and 15 percent who backed Romney.

Santorum also enjoys a majority of the support of Tea Party voters, 51 percent of whom backed the former Pennsylvania senator, compared to Gingrich's 24 percent and Romney's 12 percent. Forty-five percent of Evangelicals backed Santorum, while 21 percent supported Gingrich and 18 percent chose Romney, according to the poll.

Not long ago, Gingrich was touting his lead over Santorum in the polls, encouraging the former Pennsylvania senator to drop out and throw his support to him as the conservative alternative to Romney.

But the PPP poll found that if Gingrich dropped out, 58 percent of his supporters would shift to Santorum, while 22 percent would go to Romney and 17 percent to Paul. Without Gingrich in the race, the survey found that Santorum would lead Romney 50 percent to 28 percent, with five percent backing Paul.

In the poll -- which surveyed 656 usual Republican primary voters nationwide on Feb. 9 and 10 -- 48 percent said they are solidly committed to their current candidate choice, while a majority, 52 percent, said they are open to changing their minds.

PPP, a Democratic polling company, said the survey had a margin of error of +/-3.8 percent.