COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is barrelling out of Super Tuesday after having notched three more victories and a near-upset in Ohio, insisting that he has proven himself to be the most electable conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney.
The biggest obstacle Santorum now faces isn’t necessarily Romney, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who, unlike Romney, is competing directly with Santorum for the party’s most conservative voters. So after spending weeks focusing their attacks on Romney, Santorum’s team on Wednesday started demanding that Gingrich drop out of the race for the good of the party.
If Gingrich remains in the race and splits the conservative vote with Santorum, Romney will win the party’s nomination, destroying conservatives’ hopes of offering a stark contrast to President Obama in the fall and possibly ensuring Obama a second term.
“Based on his electoral performance [Tuesday] night and his out-of-step record it is time for Newt Gingrich to exit the Republican nominating process,” said Stuart Roy, an adviser to the Red, White and Blue Fund, a super-PAC supporting Santorum. “With Gingrich exiting the race it would be a true head-to-head race and conservatives would be able to make a choice between a consistent conservative in Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney.”
But Gingrich insists he’s in the race to stay and that he can still secure the delegates needed to win the nomination even though he won only one of the 10 states voting Tuesday — his home state of Georgia — and only one before that, neighboring South Carolina. Gingrich noted that several other conservative challengers thought they could best him — including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, businessman Herman Cain and Rep. Michele Bachmann — only to be forced out of the race even as Gingrich plodded ahead.
“It’s all right, there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through, I’m the tortoise,” Gingrich said at a victory rally in Atlanta Tuesday night. “I just take one step at a time.”
Santorum, who hasn’t directly called on Gingrich to step down, won Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota Tuesday and nearly beat Romney in Ohio. He won four other contests before Super Tuesday, appealing to blue-collar conservatives and evangelical voters who stubbornly refused to embrace Romney. It’s a record Gingrich can’t match, Santorum’s advisers said.
“Poll after poll shows if Rick Santorum were just to have a one-on-one shot with Mitt Romney that the Gingrich supporters go right to Rick Santorum in big numbers,” Santorum senior strategist John Brabender said. “So conservative and Tea Party folks are going to have a decision to make: Do we want Mitt Romney to be the nominee or do we want to just keep splitting our vote?”
Santorum emailed supporters Wednesday highlighting the fact that he’s racking up victories even though Romney is heavily outspending him.
“Our campaign is defying expectations and stunning pundits across the country,” he said in the message. “We have the momentum now let’s take advantage of it.”
