Republican hopeful Rick Santorum set to quit run for US presidency

Rick Santorum, the conservative former senator who won nearly a dozen contests in the 2012 race for the Republican nomination, was due to suspend his latest and long-struggling run for the presidency last night.

According to the Washington Post, Santorum was scheduled to appear yesterday evening on Fox News Channel, where an aide said he will make “two major announcements”.

According to several national Republicans familiar with his plans, he will discuss his decision to end his 2016 campaign and he will likely make an endorsement of one of his GOP rivals.

Santorum’s pending departure from the race comes after a disappointing finish in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, where he faced stiff competition for the support of the religious conservatives who four years ago were his base.

Santorum becomes the third Republican to bow out of the crowded 2016 field since Monday’s Iowa contest, with Senator Rand Paul and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee also dropping out.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, accused rival, Ted Cruz, of stealing victory in the Iowa caucuses and called for another vote, or nullification of Cruz’s win.

Trump, who finished second, behind Cruz, lit up Twitter, saying the outcome was tainted, because the Cruz campaign had spread misinformation about Trump’s stand on Obamacare and an erroneous report that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race.

Trump had gone into Monday’s caucus voting ahead of the Texas senator by five percentage points in a key poll, but Cruz won, four points ahead of the New York billionaire.

Twitter was abuzz over Trump’s accusations. Several social-media users tweeted screengrabs of an alleged deleted tweet from Trump’s official account, in which he said Cruz “illegally” stolen the vote.

“Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” Trump wrote.

In another tweet, Trump said Cruz had lied about Trump’s opinion of President Barack Obama’s healthcare programme.

“And, finally, Cruz strongly told thousands of caucusgoers (voters) that Trump was strongly in favour of Obamacare and ‘choice’ — a total lie!” he said.