Free Republic

On good-bye tour, Gingrich touts ability to be Romney surrogate By NBC's Andrew Rafferty MOORESVILLE, NC -- Even though his presidential campaign "will go bye-bye," Newt Gingrich on Thursday said he and his wife plan to campaign through the fall to help presumptive nominee Mitt Romney. "I'm going to look at how I can be helpful, because I suspect people will still show up to hear me," Gingrich told voters at luncheon here. "Callista and I are going to campaign through October." Though today, just 25 people attended the midday event here, leaving a roomful of empty chairs. Some of...

Rick Santorum went up to the edge of endorsing Mitt Romney this evening, but failed to pull the trigger despite many attempts by CNN’s Piers Morgan to get him to say the word. Clearly frustrated by Santorum not dancing around the endorsement of Romney, Morgan at one point said, “Spit it out.”

President of the United States Republican Primary Candidate Votes Percent GINGRICH, NEWT (REP) 62,556 10.6% ROMNEY, MITT (REP) 339,097 57.3% PAUL, RON (REP) 77,897 13.2% SANTORUM, RICK (REP) 112,061 18.9% Democratic Primary Candidate Votes Percent OBAMA, BARACK (DEM) 484,958 100.0% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- United States Senator Republican Primary Candidate Votes Percent CHRISTIAN, DAVID ALAN (REP) 54,691 9.8% SCARINGI, MARC A. (REP) 40,834 7.4% WELCH, STEVEN D. (REP) 114,296 20.6% SMITH, TOM (REP) 231,013 41.6% ROHRER, SAM (REP) 115,072 20.7% Democratic Primary Candidate Votes Percent VODVARKA, JOSEPH JOHN (DEM) 108,888 20.2% CASEY, JR, BOB (DEM) 429,419 79.8%

Rick Santorum had been the last best hope of Christian conservatives who opposed Mitt Romney, derided by many as a “Massachusetts moderate.” Now, facing the abrupt end of Mr. Santorum’s presidential bid, some evangelical leaders have begun to rally behind Mr. Romney, saying their shared hostility toward President Obama will be a powerful force for uniting the party in November. In one sign of coalescing support from Christian conservatives, the National Organization for Marriage, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, endorsed Mr. Romney on Wednesday morning. The group called Mr. Romney a “true champion” and said that President Obama “has...