Richard Viguerie to Newt Gingrich: Don't Quit the Fight, Join Rick Santorum to Win It
Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974; after 6 PM Eastern & on weekends, 703-307-8176
MANASSAS, Va., March 15, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, issued the following statement calling on Newt Gingrich to withdraw from the presidential race and join the Rick Santorum campaign:
"I'm not asking my old friend Newt Gingrich to quit the fight to elect a conservative President. I'm asking Newt and his supporters and campaign team to join Rick Santorum's campaign for President to ensure that we win that fight.
"Over the long span of his career, no one -- save Ronald Reagan -- did more while in public office to advance the conservative cause than did Newt Gingrich.
"Far from asking Newt to withdraw from the fight to nominate a movement conservative for President, I am asking that he take a leading role -- perhaps the pivotal role -- in that battle, by throwing the weight of his formidable intellect and political skills behind Rick Santorum.
"As the results in primary after primary have shown, the united conservative vote far exceeds that of the establishment's favored candidate, Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney.
"If Romney is the nominee, most conservatives believe he will do little more than slow our race toward fiscal and social bankruptcy.
"Yet, as long as conservatives are divided, there is a very real possibility that a moderate like Governor Romney, or someone else hand selected by party bosses at a deadlocked convention, may become the Republican nominee.
"Speaker Gingrich can change the calculus of the campaign and the direction of this country by joining Rick Santorum to build a conservative governing majority.
"If there is a conservative such as Rick Santorum in the White House, it would create a host of new possibilities for Speaker Gingrich to advance the conservative policies he has advocated so capably these many years of his public service.
"A Romney White House, on the other hand, would be indifferent, if not overtly hostile, to Newt Gingrich and his vision of conservative government.
"I well remember the evenings in the 1970s and 1980s when I used to strategize with Newt Gingrich how to elect a conservative Congress. Over our long friendship, whenever we were facing an uphill political battle, we remained confident in victory because we knew we had the power of conservative ideas on our side.
"I urge my old friend Newt to unify the conservative movement, not by quitting the fight, but by joining Rick Santorum to win it."
NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (Washington Times). He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.
