CRAMERTON, N.C. – Newt Gingrich will step aside from the presidential race next week, adding a more official stamp to what has been practically true for some time: Mitt Romney is the Republican presidential nominee.
The formal end will come at an event Tuesday in the Washington, D.C., area where Gingrich will suspend his campaign and likely endorse Romney.
The former U.S. House Speaker from Georgia has long said he would support Romney if he is the nominee against President Barack Obama but Wednesday morning, while conceding the obvious, he avoided being too complimentary.
“You have to give him some credit,” Gingrich told about 75 attendees at a GOP breakfast just west of Charlotte. “This guy has worked for six years, put together a big machine, and has put together a serious campaign. I think obviously that I would be a better candidate but the objective fact is that the voters didn’t think that.”
The final setback for Gingrich was Tuesday’s five-state sweep for the former Massachusetts governor by wide margins. It was the first opportunity for Gingrich to compete after former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out of the race, and he thought he could pull off an upset in Delaware. Instead Romney walloped him there by 30 points.
Gingrich gave vague mention to a campaign reassessment Tuesday night in Concord, N.C. – he was in the Tar Heel state trying to drum up support for the May 8 primary – and by Wednesday morning had made up his mind.
He talked about his campaign’s “transition” and added: “But I am committed to this party. I am committed to defeating Obama. We will find ways to be helpful but I do think it’s pretty clear that Gov. Romney is ultimately going to be the nominee."
Shortly thereafter, his campaign sent word that Gingrich would drop out Tuesday. He will be “laying out plans now how as a citizen he can best help stop [an] Obama second term and win congressional majorities,” spokesman R.C. Hammond wrote in a text message.
The Republican National Committee also officially embraced Romney as the “presumptive" nominee Wednesday and began coordinating its efforts with Romney’s campaign.
Gingrich will maintain his plans this week, campaigning in North Carolina through Friday thenattending the glitzy White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday. The formal announcement is delayed until Tuesday so the campaign can arrange to bring in Gingrich's family and friends.
Lately Gingrich has shelved the talk of what he will do in the Oval Office and spoken more about representing conservatism at the August GOP convention in Tampa.
Gingrich stresses conservative themes like domestic oil production and religious liberty, but also the need for investment in medical research and space exploration, leaving it unclear how much his message will complement Romney’s as part of the Republican strategy in the fall. He consistently attacks what he views as Obama's dangerous radicalism.
Gingrich’s exit leaves Rep. Ron Paul of Texas as the only remaining Republican challenger to Romney, but Paul has failed to win a state and is cordial with Romney. As a result, the slim chance of a floor fight in Tampa is all but extinguished.
A Gingrich-Romney embrace would be awkward considering the rhetorical darts Gingrich has slung at the former Massachusetts governor during an often heated primary season. The bad blood stems from what Gingrich felt were misleading attacks by a Romney-allied Super PAC, Restore Our Future, which dumped millions of television advertising dollars in Iowa and Florida that helped turn those key states away from Gingrich.
Romney has turned his attention squarely on Obama and the general election, though Santorum also has yet to officially announce his backing. Both Santorum and Gingrich cultivated conservatives who were distrustful of Romney for deviating from conservative positions in the past.
One of them is Colette Koester, of Charlotte, who stood outside a restaurant in Kings Mountain, N.C., Wednesday afternoon waving a sign in support of her candidate because it was too crowded to get in. Koester said she decided to back Gingrich in January after watching the GOP debates and his town hall appearances on CSPAN. She traveled to South Carolina and Tennessee to volunteer for him in those states’ primaries.
Koester pronounced herself “disappointed” that Gingrich is leaving the race and will not yet commit to voting for Romney in November because he does not inspire her.
“I feel very disenfranchised as a conservative, common-sense, patriotic American,” she said.
In Denver, N.C., Gingrich appeared re-energized by 1,300-strong crowd of students, teachers and parents at a charter school, where he stressed the importance of "cheerful persistence." He added: "You live in the freest society in existence. Why be grumpy?"
Gingrich listed winning the Speakership and being named Time's Man of the Year among his accomplishments. He did not talk about running for president.
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