Former U.S. House Speaker and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich will suspend his campaign for the presidential candidacy after only winning two Republican primaries, Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting. He fell far behind in the delegate count to Mitt Romney as well.
Gringrich had vowed to stay in the presidential race until the Republican’s August 27 national convention in Tampa. However, he told NBC on Monday that he would reassess his candidacy based on Tuesday’s Delaware primary. He came in second, with 27 percent, behind Romney’s 56.5 percent. He’s expected to officially announce his decision next week, and will support Romney.
After winning the January 21 primary in South Carolina, Gingrich failed to build any additional momentum. He lost to Romeny by 14 percentage points in Florida’s January 31 primary.
As the race continued, many of the anti-Romney voters began to support former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. He established himself as the main alternative to Romeny after sweeping the primaries in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, while Gingrich only went on to win his home state of Georgia. Santorum later suspended his own candidacy on April 10, essentially assuring the Republican nomination for Romney.
Gingrich’s campaign listed $4.3 million in debt at the end of March. He owed himself $271,775 for travel alone. He also owes more than $1 million to Moby Dick Airways and $49,502 to the Patriot Group for security.
Written by: Karen Benardello
