Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich vowed to return to Florida as the “nominee” in August, after losing the Florida Republican primary election to rival candidate Mitt Romney.
Mr. Gingrich’s popularity in Florida declined last week after two strong nationally televised debate performances by Mr. Romney.
The former House speaker addressed the media several times in his speech, stating that he would not be dropping out of the race until the Republican National Convention.
That would mean Mr. Gingrich will be participating in every primary win or lose, against all of the other remaining candidates through the end of June, when Utah holds its Republican priamary election.
“We are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we are going to be in Tampa as the nominee in August,” said Mr. Gingrich.
Mr. Romney received 46.4 percent of the votes and was trailed by Mr. Gingrich at 31.9 percent, according to Google.
Mr. Gingrich’s supporters were holding up signs that read “46 states to go,” during his speech. He he stated that the signs were especially for the media, to make it known that he was remaining in the race through August.
In his speech he stated that “people power” would defeat “money power,” a comparison of his campaign to Mr. Romney’s in terms of ad spending during the week leading up to the Florida Republican primary election.
Mr. Romney and the pro Romney Super PAC “Restore Our Future” reportedly spent an estimated $15 million on running ads in Florida, The Daily Beast reports. The Bain Capital co-founder focused on Mr. Gingrich’s past relationship with Freddie Mac, and he tied that too the foreclosure crisis that the state of Florida is still recovering from in 2012.
Mr. Gingrich and his Super PAC, “Winning Our Future” spent $4 million on ads in the week leading up to Tuesday’s Florida Republican primary election. The former House speaker removed one of his ads from the airwaves after U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, called it “inaccurate.” The advertisement accused Mr. Romney of being “anti-immigrant,” in an attempt to appeal to Florida’s large population of Hispanic residents.
“Winning Our Future” is showing signs of Mr. Gingrich’s refusal to drop out of the race too, as they are currently running a scathing 1 minute advertisement called “Blood Money” on their website. The video calls Mr. Romney the “Obamacare inventor” and makes light of his “exclusive tax rate.”
In his victory speech, Mr. Romney focused on criticizing President Barack Obama. Mr. Gingrich focused on drawing contrasts between himself, and associated Mr. Romney with Mr. Obama, stating that the Republican primary has come down to a “2 person race” between himself and the “Massachusetts moderate.”
The Florida Republican primary race did come down to a “2 person race” between Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich, as former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul did not break the 20th percentile in Florida.
Mr. Santorum returned to his home state of Pennsylvania several times from the Florida campaign trail, and Mr. Paul essentially conceded the state because of the “winner take all” delegate distribution in Florida.
Mr. Romney now has two primary election wins, compared to Mr. Gingrich’s single victory in the South Carolina Republican primary election last week.
Mr. Gingrich did not focus his entire speech after losing the Florida primary though, as he continued to call for the repeal of Obamacare, and plotted out his hypothetical first day as president.
The former House speaker will join the other remaining candidates in Nevada on Wednesday, courting voters in the Silver state leading up to the Nevada Republican caucuses on Saturday. Three days later, there will be two caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado on the same day of the Missouri Republican primary election.
