Rick Santorum Beats Mitt Romney in National Q-Poll

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum leads the GOP pack in a national poll unveiled on Wednesday.

Santorum tops a national poll from Quinnipiac University with 35 percent followed by Mitt Romney with 26 percent. Newt Gingrich stands in third with 14 percent followed by Ron Paul with 11 percent. When pitted head-to-head, Santorum takes 50 percent and Romney garners 37 percent.

Rick Santorum's lead among Republican voters and GOP-leaning independents is built on the votes of Republican men, tea party supporters and white evangelical Christians," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Santorum is riding the momentum wave from his trifecta of victories in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota; but so far this year, momentum from one week has been a much-overhyped asset by the time the next round of voting comes along."

The poll of 1,124 Republican primaryvoters was taken from Feb. 14-20 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percent.