Rick Santorum Suspends His Campaign

Rick Santorum must have had a change of heart in deciding to stay in the race to now dropping out of the race because prior to his announcement that he was suspending his campaign, Rick Santorum called Mitt Romney to concede the race. In response to this news, Mitt Romney praised Rick Santorum for being an “able and worthy competitor." Newt Gingrich has stubbornly refused to drop out of the race and is courting Rick Santorum's supporters to back him in the race: 

Newt Gingrich praised Rick Santorum’s “remarkable campaign” Tuesday after the former Pennsylvania senator bowed out of the presidential race, and Gingrich invited Santorum’s supporters into his own camp.

“I am committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice,” Gingrich said in a statement. “I humbly ask Senator Santorum’s supporters to visit Newt.org to review my conservative record and join us as we bring these values to Tampa. We know well that only a conservative can protect life, defend the Constitution, restore jobs and growth and return to a balanced budget.”

Gingrich has conceded he has little chance of securing the 1,144 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination outright. Late last month, his campaign announced it was shedding a third of its staff, and the former House speaker also has pledged to back front-runner Mitt Romney, if Romney becomes the nominee.

But Gingrich is holding out hope that he can attract enough votes from Santorum supporters to prevent Romney from reaching 1,144 delegates before August and that he can win the GOP nomination at a contested Republican National Convention.

However, Newt Gingrich's chances of getting enough delegates to become the Republican nominee or force a brokered convention is slim or impossible. Currently, Romney has 661 delegates while Newt Gingrich only has 136 delegates. Even if Rick Santorum gave all of his 285 delegates to Newt, he would only have 421 delegates. As a result, he would still be far behind Mitt Romney. However, it is not likely that Newt Gingrich will pick up any more delegates since his campaign is so in debt that they can't even afford the $500 check to get on the Utah ballot. I highly doubt Newt can wage a competitive campaign that would seriously challenge Mitt Romney. 

If you're wondering what will happen to Rick Santorum's delegates now that he's out of the race, you'll be surprised to learn that Rick Santorum cannot gift his delegates to any competitor but will become free agents in which they can support any candidates they choose: 

Santorum has 285 delegates, according to the latest ABC News delegate estimate, second to Mitt Romney’s 661. He captured the majority of them by winning 10 states–11 if you count Missouri’s nonbinding primary, which the candidate counted in his bowing-out speech today.

But some of those delegates were never really “his.”  ABC estimates that 78 Santorum delegates, from his wins in states that don’t “award” their delegates – Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, and North Dakota, would have been free to support any candidate at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Another two of Santorum’s delegates were Republican National Committee superdelegates, who will attend the convention by virtue of their positions in the party, and are also free to support whomever they choose in Tampa.

Santorum won seven more delegates from unbound caucus states Washington and Wyoming.

He won another 10 delegates from Illinois, where they would not be required by state or national-party rule to vote for Santorum in Tampa, either, although Santorum’s campaign presented their names and qualifying signatures to the state board of elections.

That leaves 188 Santorum delegates heading to Tampa. They’ll be required to vote for him, unless he chooses to release them, according to state-party rules.

Even if Santorum endorses Romney, that doesn’t mean he can gift all of his delegates to his former rival.  Should Santorum elect to release his delegates, they’ll become free agents, able to support whichever candidate they choose.

I think a majority of Santorum's delegates will ultimately back Mitt Romney. Some will still vote for Santorum at the Republican convention while others will support Newt Gingrich. However, now that Rick Santorum is out of the race, it is safe to say that the 2012 primary elections are over and Mitt Romney will become the Republican challenger to President Obama.