Santorum Ends Campaign, Cites Personal Reasons

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum ended his campaign today with a speech in his home state of Pennsylvania. The former Senator said his decision to drop out of the race was for personal and not political reasons. After a weekend tending to his daughter after she was hospitalized with pneumonia, Santorum said he and his family had come to the decision to end his campaign for the presidency. With the Pennsylvania primary just two weeks away, Santorum had been hoping a victory in his home state would give him the momentum needed to carry his candidacy through until the Republican National Convention in August. In his 12-minute speech, Santorum did not mention Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and gave no indication as to when or if he would endorse him. Kathie Obradovich is the political columnist for The Des Moines Register. Santorum’s campaign successes have largely been credited to his triumph in the Iowa Caucuses. Obradovich doesn’t believe Santorum’s decision to not endorse Romney immediately was meant to hurt the frontrunner, but rather focus on his own reasons for leaving the race. “His campaign certainly didn’t rule out an endorsement and I suspect that it would have a greater impact if it came on a different day.” Super PACs have played a big role in the presidential race so far and Obradovich said they may have caused Santorum to drop out. “I think that without Super PACs helping with some campaign advertising on his behalf that he would have run out of money and would not been able to stay in long enough for him to gain any traction.” Some worry that social conservatives won’t support Romney in the general election because of his Mormon faith and past pro-choice positions. “I think that social conservatives will support him, the question is how hard will they work for him.” Though not a likely vice presidential candidate for Romney, Santorum could end up with a Cabinet post in a Romney administration. Obradovich believes a third party candidacy from either Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul is unlikely.