WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum rejuvenated his presidential hopes on Tuesday with overwhelming victories over front-runner Mitt Romney in Republican nominating contests in Missouri and Minnesota.

Santorum, who until Tuesday had won only one of the first five Republican contests, crushed his rivals in a non-binding primary in Missouri and in the Minnesota caucuses. His previous victory had been by a slim margin over Romney in Iowa.

Results were still being tallied in the caucuses in Colorado, the third state to vote on Tuesday in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to face President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

On the first day of multiple nominating contests in the 2012 primary season, networks projected Santorum as the winner in Missouri and Minnesota. In Missouri, with 86 percent of the vote counted, Santorum had 56 percent to Romney’s 25 percent, according to the secretary of state’s website.

With 56 percent of the vote counted in Minnesota, the secretary of state’s website said Santorum had 45 percent of the vote, U.S. congressman Ron Paul was in second with 27 percent and Romney a distant third with 17 percent. It marked the first time so far in the 2012 Republican race that Romney did not come in first or second in a state contest.

The victory gives new hope to Santorum, a staunch social and religious conservative, and new momentum in his battle with former U.S. House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich to be viewed as the top conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney.

“Wow. Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,” Santorum told supporters in St. Charles, Missouri after results came in from those two states.