LAS VEGAS – Hold on until Super Tuesday.
That’s Newt Gingrich’s game plan following his decisive back to back losses to Mitt Romney in Florida and Nevada’s Republican presidential nominating contests.
The former House speaker talked about his way forward during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning. He singled out Georgia, the state he represented in Congress for 20 years, and other southern states where he predicted he could do well.
Republican voters in Georgia and many other delegate-rich states will make their picks on March 6. Texas follows on April 3.
“Our goal is to get to Super Tuesday where we are in much more favorable territory,” he said. “We want to get to Georgia, to Alabama, to Tennessee. We want to get to Texas. We believe by the time Texas is over we will be very competitive in the delegate count.”
Saturday night Gingrich angrily jabbed at Romney and vowed to continue campaigning all the way to the Republican National Convention in August following his loss in Nevada’s GOP caucuses.
Without offering specifics, Gingrich accused Romney of being dishonest during their second debate in Florida, saying “if you can’t tell the truth as a candidate for president, how can the country possibly expect you to lead as president?”
Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg responded: "Newt Gingrich's false and desperate attacks are the sign of a candidate trying to distract from his own record to save his sinking campaign."
Yet, Gingrich said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday that he would support Romney if he becomes the Republican nominee for president.
“I think President Obama is so unacceptable that I will support the Republican nominee,” Gingrich said. “That doesn’t mean I approve of Gov. Romney’s approach, but compared to President Obama I think there would be no choice.”
The campaign trail won’t get any easier for Gingrich this week, when Republican voters in Colorado and Minnesota are scheduled to make their picks. Mitt Romney handily won in both those states in the 2008 GOP caucuses.
“Those are all places that are not going to be too hospitable for him,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Gingrich said he would focus on finding a “series of victories that by the end of the Texas primary will leave us at about at parity with Gov. Romney. And from that point forward we will see if we can actually win the nomination.”
Gingrich is scheduled to make two public campaign stops in Colorado and one in Minnesota Monday before moving on to Ohio Tuesday. Mitt Romney overwhelmingly won the Colorado caucuses in 2008 with 60 percent of the vote. Gingrich’s supporters are hoping for a second place finish in the Centennial State.
“Mitt is still the prohibitive favorite here. But Newt is outworking Mitt on the ground. He just is,” said Patrick Davis, Gingrich’s Colorado campaign director and the former political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Those comments are similar to ones Gingrich’s supporters made about his chances in Nevada. Before he even arrived in the Silver State, they were predicting he could hope for second place at best.
Gingrich’s campaign started to show signs of disarray early on in Nevada. His campaign abruptly canceled a meeting it had scheduled with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, later calling it a miscommunication. And then campaign officials told news reporters that real estate mogul Donald Trump was about to endorse Gingrich. Instead, Trump endorsed Romney Thursday.
Gingrich stuck to a thin public campaign schedule throughout his swing through Nevada. On the day of the caucuses, for example, he scheduled no public campaign events except for the evening news conference to respond to the caucus results.
Gingrich, however, has spent considerable time behind the scenes here raising money. He needs the cash to help sustain his efforts through Super Tuesday.
Damore, the political science professor in Las Vegas, suggested the thin public schedule indicated Gingrich was conceding Nevada and that he was fatigued after spending months on the campaign trail.
“He doesn’t have much of an organization” in Nevada, Damore said. “There are no debates for him to make use of… He is probably figuring out what is the best way to proceed and try to stay viable until Super Tuesday.”
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