Pitched Appeals in 3-Way Race in Deep South Meggan Haller for The New York Times Mitt Romney, appearing with the comedian Jeff Foxworthy, spoke to supporters at a Whistle Stop restaurant in Mobile, Ala., on Monday after a rainstorm shortened his event. BILOXI, Miss. - On the day before two crucial Southern primaries, the leading Republican candidates sought to motivate supporters in what has become a fiercely contested three-way race in Alabama and Mississippi. Two of the candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, appearing at an energy forum here on Monday morning, jockeyed to position themselves as the fiercer foe to take on President Obama, while a third, Mitt Romney, stumping an hour's drive east along the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Ala., made another stab at Southern folksiness, telling a crowd he dined on catfish "for the second time" and it was "delicious." Mr. Romney said the race was tight and framed it as a quest to add to his lead in the delegate count, not necessarily to win the popular votes in the two Deep South states. "I need even more delegates," he told supporters under the porch of a cafe to escape a downpour. If you guys are able to do this for me, we could well take this over the top at a very fast pace. We're going to get this thing won. It was Mr. Romney's 65th birthday, and he was in a jaunty mood. Greeting one man, he said, "You might be shaking the president's hand." He seemed to reconsider how that might sound. "Then again, you might not," he said. But I hope you are. Mr. Romney is benefitting in Mississippi - where Gov. Phil Bryant and other top Republicans have endorsed him - from the well-oiled party infrastructure built by Mr. Bryant's predecessor, Haley Barbour. "It's being very helpful to Romney - making the right connections, getting out the vote, raising the money," said Tony Perkins, a national social conservative leader who backs Mr. Santorum. The institutional support may be helping Mr. Romney overcome the appeal to conservatives of Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich, who are both more naturally on their turf in the Deep South. In mailings and on the Internet, the Gingrich campaign has attacked Mr. Santorum's record as a United States senator from Pennsylvania senator to portray him as pro-union and pro-big government - that is, less than a true conservative. But Mr. Santorum pushed back on his return to Mississippi on Sunday after his decisive victory in the Kansas caucuses. He is hoping to use momentum from that victory to help him with the large numbers of evangelical Christians here. Speaking to a crowd in Gulfport on Sunday evening, he said: "They say you can't win the general election if you're too conservative. I hear this all he time. Which is sort of funny because all of my opponents are attacking me here in Mississippi for not being conservative enough. "Just think about that when you hear that next robo-call," he said. Mr. Santorum also mocked the Romney campaign for maintaining that Mr. Romney was the inevitable nominee because his lead in the delegate count made it nearly mathematically impossible for anyone to catch him. "When we have our "nominee" out there trying to sell himself because of mathematics, we're in very, very tough shape," Mr. Santorum said. The country, he said, does not need "a C.E.O.," it needs a commander-in-chief. Mr. Gingrich has barnstormed relentlessly in Alabama and Mississippi, canceling campaign and fund-raising trips elsewhere. There are signs he is making an impact. The issue he pounds single-mindedly has been energy, and crowds now join him in repeating key lines, like saying Mr. Obama is proposing that algae can be a replacement for fossil fuels. Mr. Gingrich's staff is glad that the one-issue message at least has kept him away from undisciplined forays into topics like returning Americans to the moon. The stakes in Alabama and Mississippi are higher for Mr. Gingrich than for the others. Ever since Super Tuesday when he won only his home state of Georgia, there has been pressure from Santorum supporters for Mr. Gingrich to quit for the sake of conservative unity, and there is anticipation that without another victory he would run out of money. But Mr. Gingrich has insisted that he will go all the way to the national convention this summer no matter what happens Tuesday.