Rick Santorum was projected the winner of the Alabama primary on Tuesday night by NBC News, and not long after projected to finish first in the Mississippi primary by Fox News.
The Yellowhammer State has 50 delegates, 47 of which are bound by the results of the contest. Mississippi has 40 delegates, 37 of which are bound by the results of the primary.
(Click here for real-time results maps for each of the southern states.)
The AP reports on exit polls conducted in Alabama and Mississippi:
Majorities of GOP voters in both states said they were strongly behind their chosen candidate. Across last week's Super Tuesday contests, the share of voters that secure topped 50 percent only in Georgia, Massachusetts and Oklahoma. In Alabama, Romney voters expressed more reservations about their candidate than did Santorum or Gingrich backers; in Mississippi, about half of Romney's and Santorum's supporters strongly favored their candidate, while about two-thirds of Gingrich supporters strongly favored him.
During an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday night, Santorum didn't hold back in taking aim at Romney.
"The voters out here know he's not a conservative you can trust," he said. "Governor Romney has a problem not only with his policies, but with what his policies did."
Below, a live blog of the latest developments to unfold.