Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum | featured news

The Rick Santorum campaign is formally calling on Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race and endorse the former Pennsylvania senator, following Tuesday night's three-primary sweep by Mitt Romney. Santorum's communications director Hogan Gidley made the statement during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC.

Former President George H.W. Bush plans to endorse Mitt Romney at an event Thursday in Houston... Formal backing from the 41st president is another sign that the Republican Party is uniting behind Romney as pressure builds on challengers Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to leave the race.

Rick Santorum has won the Mississippi GOP presidential primary, according to an Associated Press projection, following his earlier triumph in neighboring Alabama on Tuesday.

Rick Santorum seized the lead in the Alabama primary Tuesday night and edged ahead of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in Mississippi, deeply conservative Southern crossroads in the struggle for the Republican presidential nomination.

Rick Santorum hopes to muscle Newt Gingrich out the race Tuesday and to force a face-off with Mitt Romney. But CNN's Candy Crowley reports Gingrich shows no signs of quitting.

A new poll Monday showed Mitt Romney is surprisingly strong in two Republican presidential primary contests in the South this week that are crucial to his conservative rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

Edward Morrissey says none of the candidates hit their targets for moving ahead on Super Tuesday, but hung on just enough to keep the crown out of Romney's reach

Mitt Romney apparently pulled off a narrow victory over Rick Santorum in Ohio on Super Tuesday. But Mr. Santorum scored victories elsewhere, competing with Mr. Romney’s achievement of collecting the most delegates and all but ensuring another round of intense infighting on the road to the Republican presidential nomination. Far from bringing new clarity to the race as some in the party had hoped, Tuesday’s results gave every candidate cause to keep driving forward —including Newt Gingrich, who won a definitive victory in Georgia. They also dashed Mr. Romney’s hope of using the night to assert himself as the inevitable nominee.

NBC News projects that Rick Santorum has won in Tennessee; Mitt Romney seen capturing Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia while Newt Gingrich takes Georgia; Ohio is too close to call and Oklahoma is too early to call.

The last time the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential race met on a debate stage, all eyes were on Newt Gingrich, who was trying to ride the momentum off his surprise victory in South Carolina.