RICK SANTORUM suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday, bowing to the inevitability of Mitt Romney’s nomination and ending his improbable, come-from-behind quest to become the party’s conservative standard-bearer in the fall.
“We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Mr Santorum said.
He made the announcement at a stop in his home state of Pennsylvania after a weekend in which he tended to his three-year-old daughter, Bella, who had been in hospital with pneumonia.
Mr Santorum, who was holding back tears, did not exactly specify why he was ending his presidential bid. He referred to his daughter’s illness but said she was making great progress and was back home after being in hospital over the weekend.
John Brabender, his chief strategist, told reporters after the speech that Mr Santorum called Mr Romney on Tuesday morning and that the two agreed to meet in the near future.
Mr Santorum made no mention of Mr Romney in a 12-minute speech in which he extolled the people he had met during the campaign and said he was inspired by their stories of struggle and faith. “This game is a long, long, long way from over,” he said.
Mr Romney issued a statement moments after Mr Santorum concluded his remarks.
“Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor, and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran,” Mr Romney said. “He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation.
“We both recognise that what is most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.”
As recently as December, Mr Santorum was operating a shoestring campaign in Iowa, travelling with just a handful of aides in a pickup truck. But his brand of conservative populism caught fire in Iowa, where he defeated Mr Romney. And it generated support in several midwest primaries.
But ultimately, his campaign struggled under a nearly constant barrage of negative ads paid for by Mr Romney and the “super PAC” supporting him, Restore Our Future, which has spent millions in an effort to ensure that Mr Romney captures the nomination in his second attempt.
Mr Santorum’s withdrawal abruptly changes not only the political calculus for Mr Romney and his campaign team, but also their financial picture.
Both candidates had faced looming fundraising challenges in the coming weeks, with Mr Santorum limping by and Mr Romney rapidly tapping his top contributors for the maximum contribution, challenging him to seek new sources of cash. Mr Romney had committed $2.9 million to the Pennsylvania primary, hoping to deliver Mr Santorum a knockout blow, and Restore Our Future had begun spending there as well.
Mr Santorum’s withdrawal will allow both Mr Romney and the super PAC to redirect those funds to other states, either to head off any lingering challenge from Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul of Texas, or to begin preparing for what seems like an increasingly likely general election matchup against President Barack Obama.
A former congressman and senator from Pennsylvania, Mr Santorum had built a reputation as an unwavering social conservative whose commitment to pro-life and gay marriage issues helped catapult him into national office.
Among the people who had been encouraging Mr Santorum to reconsider a drawn-out challenge to Mr Romney were some evangelical leaders such as Richard Land, the president of the ethics commission at the Southern Baptist Convention.
“As his friend, I would say, ‘You know you’ve done an incredible job resurrecting your career. You’ve done better than anybody thought you could.’ In eight years, Rick Santorum will be three years younger that Romney is now. He’s only 53 years old,” Mr Land said. “He’ll be a significant player.” – (New York Times)