“We did it again,” Rick Santorum declared after taking the stage to celebrate his strong showing tonight — and he was right. Once again, Santorum outperformed expectations by sweeping Alabama and Mississippi, slowing Mitt Romney’s march toward the nomination.

As I wrote yesterday, Mitt Romney was unlikely to win in either Alabama or Mississippi, given that the electorate was dominated by evangelical voters who have been the voting block that’s been most resistant to his candidacy. Despite exit polls suggesting Romney was gaining some ground among evangelicals, ultimately that wasn’t enough, and he’s looking at a third place finish in both states. To be clear, Romney is still the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination given his lead in delegates, but tonight he lost another chance to put the final nail in the coffin of his opponents by proving he could win on unfriendly turf.