Gingrich Says Romney Likely GOP Candidate

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Sunday that Mitt Romney will likely be the eventual Republican nomination and said that he will make an attempt to support the former Massachusetts governor, but ruled out dropping out of the race.
Gingrich Says Romney Likely GOP Candidate
4/8/2012
Updated:
4/9/2012

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Sunday that Mitt Romney will likely be the eventual Republican nomination and said that he will make an attempt to support the former Massachusetts governor, but ruled out dropping out of the race.

Gingrich told Fox in an interview that Romney “is far and away the most likely” candidate to run against President Barack Obama, adding that he and Romney are not enemies despite negative ads that each party pointed at the other earlier this year.

“I hit him as hard as I could, he hit me as hard as he could—turned out he had more things to hit with than I did,” Gingrich said. “That’s part of the business.”

Possibly hinting that his presidential bid is coming to a close soon, Gingrich said that his campaign is “operating on a shoestring” but said he’s glad he made the attempt at the nation’s highest office. He said the campaign is millions of dollars in debt but said that he would raise money to pay it off and then transition out of politics. “I’m glad I did this,” he added.

“It turned out to me much harder than I thought it would be,” Gingrich said. “It was the right for me to do in both my life and where I thought the country was.”

If Romney secures the GOP nomination, the former House speaker said he will do anything in his power to support him.

“We are absolutely committed to defeating Barack Obama,” he said. “I will work as hard for (Romney) as I would for myself.”

It appears that Gingrich will still use his eminent fame and campaign to promote the Republican Party as it heads closer to Election Day—not only just for Romney.

“I think platforms matter in the long run in the evolution of the party. And the party is more than just a presidential candidate,” he said, referring to campaigns in the House, Senate, and for state offices.

There was some speculation that Romney’s closest rival, Rick Santorum, may be dropping out of the race, which led Romney to foray his campaign into the general election against Obama, but Santorum’s campaign released a schedule of events for the coming week. Santorum canceled his Monday appearance after his youngest daughter was hospitalized.