Santorum and Romney Court Voters in Ohio and Super Tuesday States FACTORY WORKERS Employees at Gregory Industries in Canton, Ohio, got a visit from Mitt Romney on the eve of Super Tuesday. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Republicans cast their votes in 10 states on Tuesday to help decide how to award the biggest batch of delegates so far in the party's presidential nominating contest, with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum engaged in a particularly competitive fight in Ohio. If Mr. Romney defeats Mr. Santorum in the bellwether primary here, it will be in no small part because he managed to win over one of the most hotly contested and elusive segments of the electorate: white working-class voters. At a metal works in Canton and a welding factory in Youngstown, in mailboxes and on the radio, Mr. Romney's intense focus on these Republican-leaning voters was in evidence on Monday as he made his closing appeal in Ohio - if not as an everyman, then at least as a chief executive who knows how to generate blue-collar jobs and get factories running again. "Other people in this race have debated about the economy, they've read about the economy, they've talked about it in subcommittee meetings, but I've actually been in it," Mr. Romney told workers at a guardrail factory in Canton, where he walked among huge coils of steel. I understand what it takes to get business successful, and to thrive. Introducing a new slogan - "more jobs, less debt, smaller government" - Mr. Romney's factory visits were not just about the Ohio primary. They were part of a broader strategy, hatched at his Boston headquarters, to fight Mr. Santorum for both working-class voters and conservatives on what aides consider to be Mr. Romney's turf, the economy, rather than on social issues. And while Mr. Romney's immediate goal is a strong showing in Ohio, one of 10 Super Tuesday states and a crucial test of whether Mr. Santorum can remain a credible challenger for the nomination, he is also seeking to prove he can maintain his party's traditional advantage among working-class voters in a general election matchup with President Obama. Mr. Santorum, who has mixed his faith-based appeal with a workingman's sensibility born of his Pennsylvania coal and steel country roots, was not about to cede that ground. At Dayton Christian School in Miamisburg on Monday, he urged a capacity crowd to vote for "a guy who grew up in a steel town in western Pennsylvania who no one gave any chance to be standing here in Ohio in March, because he went out and believed in free people" and in "building a stronger economy based on manufacturing." Noting that Mr. Romney's far better-financed campaign had vastly outspent him in Ohio, he added: "Money's not going to buy this election. The best ideas and believing in the American people is going to win this election. Mr. Santorum's success with working-class voters in some states, notably Iowa and Michigan, has helped expose Mr. Romney's potential vulnerabilities with them. Mr. Romney's background as a wealthy private-equity manager and some of his off-the-cuff remarks - like his comment at Daytona two weekends ago that "I have some great friends who are Nascar team owners" - have only emphasized his challenge in connecting with blue-collar voters. Advisers inside and outside Mr. Romney's campaign headquarters had grown alarmed that such comments had opened him up to criticism that he was an elitist. But those concerns coincided with a recognition that a prolonged diversion into social conservative touchstones - abortion and contraception - had diverted the campaign from its core economic message, giving Mr. Santorum an opening. The aides concluded that the only way for Mr. Romney to improve his performance among these critical voters was to spend less time talking about the modest upbringing of his father, who went on to become the governor of Michigan, and more time telling the stories of real workers he met at factories. In the past few days, they staged events in more working-class settings like the campaign stops he made Monday. The campaign carefully choreographed the stops, featuring images of Mr. Romney surrounded by heavy equipment and talking about galvanizing steel. This piece equipment behind you, you know what that does? Mr. Romney asked, pointing to a big blue machine. That shreds cars. In 12 seconds, you put a car in at one end, out the other end comes little pieces of metal and rubber and glass and whatever. Ashley Parker contributed reporting from Canton, Ohio, and Allison Kopicki from New York.