Jubilant Santorum wins Minnesota, nonbinding Mo.

WASHINGTON — A resurgent Rick Santorum won Minnesota's Republican caucuses with ease Tuesday night, relegating GOP front-runner Mitt Romney to a distant third-place finish that raised fresh questions about his ability to attract ardent conservatives at the core of the party's political base.

Santorum was victorious, as well, in a nonbinding Missouri primary that was worth bragging rights but no delegates.

"Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota!" Santorum told cheering supporters in St. Charles, Mo. Challenging his rival, he declared that on issues ranging from health care to "Wall Street bailouts, Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama."

Colorado held caucuses, too. The first few hundred votes tallied trended Santorum's way, but the count lagged well behind Minnesota's.

Returns from 572 percent of Minnesota's precincts showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Texas Rep. Paul with 27 percent and Romney — who won the state in his first try for the nomination four years ago — with 17 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed with 11 percent.

Romney prevailed in both Minnesota and Colorado in 2008, the first time he ran for the nomination, but the GOP has become more conservative in both states since then under the influence of tea party activists.

There were 37 Republican National Convention delegates at stake in Minnesota and 33 more in Colorado, and together, they accounted for the largest one-day combined total so far in the race for the GOP nomination.

Minnesota's victory was the first for Santorum since he eked out a 34-vote win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses a month ago.

He had faded far from the lead in the primaries and caucuses since, and Gingrich seemed to eclipse him as the leading conservative rival to Romney when he won the South Carolina primary late last month.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, campaigned aggressively in all three states, seeking a breakthrough to revitalize a campaign that had struggled since Iowa.

He won Minnesota largely the way he did Iowa, dispatching his organizers from the first state to the second and courting pastors and tea party leaders alike.

Paul, a Texas lawmaker, has yet to win a primary or caucus. He arrived at a caucus site in Coon Rapids, Minn., in early evening to shake hands with early arrivers and had to squeeze his way through a crowd of autograph seekers.