Santorum quits Republican nomination campaign

Bowing to the inevitable, Rick Santorum quit the US presidential campaign last night, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to claim the Republican nomination.

Santorum, appearing with his wife and family in his home state of Pennsylvania, told supporters the race for him was over, but the fight to defeat Barack Obama would go on.

He said he had gone further than anyone expected, competing “against all odds”.

The delegate totals told the tale of Santorum’s demise. Romney has more than twice as many delegates as Santorum and is on pace to reach the number needed to clinch the nomination — 1,144 — by early June.

Still in the race, but not considered a factor, are former house speaker Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul of Texas.

He made no mention or endorsement of Romney, whom Santorum had derided as an unworthy standard-bearer for the Republicans.

The former Pennsylvania senator said: “We are going to continue to go out there and fight to defeat President Barack Obama.”

Santorum spoke to Romney ahead of his announcement, a source said.

Romney congratulated Santorum on his campaign, calling him an “able and worthy competitor”.

Santorum had been hoping to hold out through the primary in Pennsylvania on Apr 24, but he decided to fold up after spending the weekend at home with his severely ill three-year-old daughter Bella.

Santorum, who took everyone by surprise with his win in Iowa’s lead-off caucuses, ran on his conservative credentials. But he was hobbled by a lack of money and organisation.

He stressed the improbable accomplishment of the past year, saying that “against all odds, we won 11 states, millions of voters, millions of votes”. He said that while Romney was accumulating more delegates, “we were winning in a very different way. We were touching hearts” with his conservative message.

Santorum was a favourite of the most socially conservative Republicans, but Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had accumulated a huge lead in delegates to the party’s national convention in August.

Obama, meanwhile, stepped up his election-year insistence that the wealthy pay a greater share of taxes, renewing his call yesterday for Congress to raise taxes on millionaires.