Rick Santorum's moral appeal - Election 2012 - The Washington Post Was electability important to voters in Alabama and Mississippi yesterday? Yes -- but it wasn't the only thing. Former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) was propelled to victory in both states last night in large part due to his appeal to voters" sense of morality. Roughly a third of Alabama voters said that electability was the top quality they were looking for in a candidate -- and, unsurprisingly, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) won among those voters, taking 51 percent. Santorum won by a similarly wide margin on the issues of who is a "true conservative" in the race -- as well as on who is a candidate with a strong moral character. And, lucky for Santorum, voters who listed those two as their top candidate qualities outnumbered those who chose electability. What does it mean going forward? If voters in Missouri this Saturday favor electability over the other two factors, it's likely to be a good night for Romney. But if they continue to prioritize "moral character" and if they view Santorum as the "true conservative" -- and given his strong showing in the Missouri beauty contest, there's a pretty good chance of that -- Romney could end up having another primary loss on his hands.