Mitt Romney could be in trouble in his native Michigan, where the latest polls give a surging Rick Santorum a surprise lead, a turn of events that suggests the erstwhile front-runner is having trouble selling his message while the once back-of-the-pack contender could be about to turn the GOP primary race on its head, political observers said.

A Public Policy Poll released yesterday shows the former Bay State governor barely in eyeshot of the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. Santorum took 39 percent to Romney’s 24 percent in the Wolverine State, where Romney was raised and where his father served as governor. A Pew Research Center poll released yesterday also showed Santorum a nose ahead of Romney nationally, by 30 percent to 28 percent.

With two weeks to go ahead of the Michigan primary on Feb. 28, Romney, who bested John McCain there in 2008 with 39 percent of the vote, is still the favorite, experts said, but the state is now in play.

“Santorum doesn’t have the resources to go toe-to-toe with Romney at this point,” said Washington, D.C.-based strategist Ford O’Connell. “But if he wins Michigan, it’s a two-man race.”

Read more from Katy Jordon at the Boston Herald