If exit polls are to be believed, Mitt Romney may be poised to get the last remaining monkey off his shoulder — winning in a state with critical mass of evangelical voters.
According to CNN exit polls, evangelicals made up 80 percent of the electorate in Mississippi, and Romney is tied with Rick Santorum at 32 percent among the group, with Newt Gingrich at 31 percent. In Alabama, where evangelicals made up 74 percent of the vote, Santorum was ahead of Romney by eight points.
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In both cases, this is a major improvement from where Romney stood just last week, when he lost the evangelical vote by 18 points in Tennessee and 10 points in Oklahoma, leading to losses in both states.
The turnaround suggests that even the voting bloc that has been the most resistant toward Romney is starting to accept the fact that he’s likely the nominee.
UPDATE: CNN has updated its exits, and now Santorum is beating Romney by four points among evangelicals in Mississippi.
