Rick Santorum cleared the way for Mitt Romney to claim victory in the long and hard-fought battle for the Republican nomination Tuesday, giving up his "against all odds" campaign as Romney's tenacious conservative rival.
Santorum's withdrawal sets up a seven-month fight for the presidency between Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Democratic President Barack Obama, the La Crosse Tribune said.
"We made a decision to get into this race at our kitchen table, against all the odds, and we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting," Santorum said during an address in Gettysburg, Pa.
"This game is a long, long, long way from over," he said. "We are going to continue to go out there and fight to make sure that we defeat President Barack Obama."
The Pennsylvania Republican had pledged to continue campaigning through the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, huffingtonpost.com said. Due to the combination of his daughter's ailing health and recent poll numbers showing him possibly losing his home state may have prompted the early departure.
According to Yahoo! News, Santorum called Romney earlier in the day to inform him of his decision to suspend his campaign, though he did not endorse him in his speech.
"This has been a good day for me," Romney told supporters in Wilmington, Del., saying he believes Santorum "will continue to have a major role" in the Republican Party.
Romney has begun looking ahead to Obama, even though Santorum refused to get out of the race earlier, the Tribune said.
Interesting news, I just want to add that Obamna is probably the best president America ever had!London