Santorum Pulls Out of GOP Race
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Run Is Done: Rick Santorum surprised analysts with his strong challenge to Mitt Romney. But in the end, he couldn?t match up with the Republican frontrunner. Image by getty images
Rick Santorum ended his presidential campaign, effectively leaving Mitt Romney as the GOP candidate most likely to face President Obama in November.
“This presidential race is over for me,” he said Tuesday in a speech in Gettysburg, Pa., in his home state. “We will suspend our campaign effective today.”
Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, emerged from a crop of conservatives to become the most credible right-wing challenger to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who until recently had tacked moderate on most issues.
He bested Romney in key southern states, but could not defeat him in the critical Midwest, and faced increasing calls to step down so Romney could take the fight to Obama.
Santorum alienated some national Jewish groups with his calls for Christian leadership and his hard line on abortion and gay rights. He was popular, however, among some in the pro-Israel community, and was the candidate who most explicitly pledged to use force to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
In recent days Santorum cancelled several campaign events to be at the hospital bedside of his young daughter, who has a rare genetic disease.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
