Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum leads the pack of Republican primary candidates in Oklahoma, according to a recent SoonerPoll survey.
If the election were held today, 38.5 percent of likely Republican voters who plan to participate in the March 6 GOP primary said they would cast their vote for Santorum.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would finish in second place with 23 percent.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who led Oklahoma when SoonerPoll last polled the race in December, fell to third place with just 18 percent. Results indicate that U.S. Rep. Ron Paul would receive just 7.6 percent of the vote.
During the SoonerPoll survey fielding process, Santorum experienced a meteoric rise in the nationwide polls after sweeping the Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado primaries in early February. Santorum has since eclipsed Romney as the nationwide front-runner in the Gallup Poll.
Bill Shapard, CEO of SoonerPoll, says Santorum’s lead in the recent SoonerPoll and his recent national attention is not coincidental.
“When we last polled the race, Santorum received just 1.5 percent of the vote. Since then he’s won the primary in Iowa which gave him the boost he needed to win several other key states,” Shapard said. “Oklahomans are beginning to think that if people in other states think he can win, maybe we should too.”
