Newt Gingrich reiterated Wednesday he intends to stay in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying he stands for a “bolder and more solutions-oriented conservatism.”
Although Rick Santorum’s decision to suspend his campaign Tuesday cleared the way for front-runner Mitt Romney to claim the nomination, Gingrich has asserted he has no intention of conceding.
In an interview with FOX News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Gingrich said he has displayed a “long commitment to conservative values.”
While he said Romney was “certainly much more conservative than Barack Obama,” he added that he believed “there are a number of places where I stand for a bolder and more solutions-oriented conservatism.”
On Tuesday, Gingrich met Santorum’s announcement with a statement appealing to the former Pennsylvania senator’s followers to back his own candidacy, saying he was “committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice.”
The GOP will hold its convention in Tampa, Fla., August 27-30.
Tuesday’s statement was in stark contrast to comments the former House speaker made over the weekend, when he acknowledged Romney was likely to win the nomination race.
Speaking on “FOX News Sunday,” Gingrich called Romney “far and away the most likely Republican nominee” and said he would throw his support behind Romney if he secured enough delegates to win the nomination.
Gingrich said Wednesday that he expected to gain delegates now that the race was “down to the two of us.” He noted it didn’t hurt Democrats to have Obama and Hillary Clinton compete until the end of June in the 2008 Democratic primary race.