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U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has shaken up what was largely thought to be a settled race by scoring three wins over Mitt Romney, but might find it hard to compete with the well-funded front-runner in coming primaries.

Santorum, a staunch social conservative and former Pennsylvania senator, stunned observers and the Republican establishments by adding Colorado to his win column on Tuesday night, hours after solidly winning the Minnesota caucuses and the Missouri primary.

Tuesday night’s state contests are largely meaningless because they awarded no delegates to Santorum for him to take to the Republican national convention in Tampa, Fla., in August. Missouri will award its delegates after it holds separate caucuses in March.

Santorum, whose shoestring campaign has not won a state since the Iowa caucuses in December, can now claim some momentum going into the next contest and try to convert it into campaign contributions. In another sign he was looking beyond the primaries, Santorum told supporters in Missouri on Tuesday night he didn’t “stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.”

“I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama,” he said to cheers.

Romney, who entered Tuesday’s contests fresh from a win in the Nevada caucuses and a trouncing of widely viewed main rival Newt Gingrich in Florida, now finds himself facing fresh questions over his ability to win over conservative voters in the wake of the three defeats.

In an additional blow, Romney came in third in Minnesota behind solid second-place finisher Ron Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman with an avid grassroots following of volunteers.

Romney still has the money

While Romney still leads all candidates in the delegate count, Santorum has now won more states and achieved it with a fraction of the millions the Romney campaign has spent on advertising — both positive and negative.

But Romney’s campaign budget still dwarves his rivals’ and has the advantage of on-the-ground operations in every primary and caucus state coming up.

The Romney camp is expected to step up its criticism of Santorum as a Washington insider with a dubious record of earmarking federal money for his home state. Santorum has been the most effective of Romney’s rivals in his questioning of Romney’s state health-care plot, which the Democrats have cited as inspiration for Obama’s national law.

Santorum, who has defended Romney in the face of Gingrich’s criticisms over his record as a successful investment banker, urged Republicans not to cede the so-called ObamaCare issue to the Democrats in the November general election by selecting Romney as their nominee.

The Democrats, in a sign they still believe Romney will be Obama’s eventual opponent, immediately used Santorum’s wins to hit out at the former Massachusetts governor, saying Tuesday night’s “embarrassment” shows Romney was rejected by a large part of the Republican electorate.

Meanwhile, Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman and Republican House speaker in the 1990s, finds himself again barraged with questions over what chances he has of winning the nomination.

Gingrich, who previously suggested Santorum withdraw from the race to allow conservatives to rally behind him and defeat Romney, has vowed to stay in the race until the August convention.

The candidate made no mention of his poor showings, telling workers at a metal manufacturing plant in Cleveland on Wednesday that he can lead the nation to an era of prosperity and security.

With files from The Associated Press