The poll is yet another fillip for Mr Santorum, an evangelical Catholic with blue collar roots who has surged in the polls in recent weeks, eclipsing his fellow conservative Newt Gingrich and challenging the long-time establishment front-runner Mitt Romney.
Analysts said the Texas poll was yet further evidence that Mr Santorum was emerging as the consensus candidate of the grassroots that the moderate-liberal Mitt Romney has conspicuously failed to energise since the primary season began in January.
"Rick Santorum has cut through the clutter and emerged as not simply the non-Romney candidate, but as the most credible conservative candidate in the race," said Daron Shaw, co-director of the University of Texas/Texas Tribune.
The 'Santorum surge' has even put the former Pennsylvania senator ahead in the rust belt state of Michigan, home of Mr Romney, causing senior Republicans to question whether a Romney candidacy could survive defeat in the state where Mr Romney's father was governor for most of the 1960s.
The latest PPP Poll showed Mr Santorum still four points clear on the back of his conservative support, with 48 per cent of voters saying his beliefs are similar to theirs, compared with just 32 per cent for Mr Romney, a Mormon management consultant.
Mr Santorum's emergence, particularly in the all-important Midwestern states such as Iowa and Ohio caught many pundits by surprise.
Only a month ago it was a resurgent Mr Gingrich who was publicly calling for Mr Santorum to step aside to allow the conservative grassroots to unite behind a single conservative candidacy.
However data from the PPP poll in Michigan now suggests that it is Mr Gingrich who should step aside, with one analysis predicting that if the maverick former speaker dropped out, it would translate into a nine-point lead for Mr Santorum in Michigan.
Mr Gingrich, however, has shown no sign that he's prepared to make way, increasing the likelihood that the nomination fight will drag on long after "Super Tuesday" on March 6, and possibly all the way to the Republican convention in Tampa at the end of August.
Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan aide and Republican party historian, said that Mr Santorum's poll numbers in Texas suggested that he was now starting to win the battle to be the conservative contrast-candidate to Mr Romney.
He drew the historical parallel of the conservative Ronald Reagan, defeating George Bush Snr in his home state of Texas as an indication of how crucial the conservative vote can be in Texas which offers 155 delegates to the convention.
"Rick now has the momentum, so religious Conservatives are swinging to the person who has the momentum and stands for their beliefs," he added, "what we're seeing is support starting to coalesce behind one of the two conservatives in the race, and that is Rick."
SOURCE: By Peter Foster, Washington - Telegraph.co.uk
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