“SANTORUM: zzzzz”
You’re forgetting that Santorum won the Mississippi presidential primary in 2012 despite getting outspent by Romney by a gazillion to one and despite Newt getting quite a bit of the conservative vote. Santorum knows how to relate to working-class conservatives better than almost any Republican, and there are a lot of those folks in the Mississippi Republican electorate.
If Santorum connects on economic issues, then the voter is ignorant.