Newt Gingrich said Mitt Romney's win in Illinois should make conservatives rethink whether Rick Santorum can beat him to become the GOP presidential nominee.
"Gov. Romney had a pretty good day today," Gingrich told Fox News's Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, following Romney's win. "Sen. Santorum did not have a very good day. This is the third time now he's tried out an industrial, Midwestern union state and not succeeded."
Since Romney has struggled to win over some conservatives and Tea Party voters, Gingrich and Santorum have jostled for position as Romney's main challenger. That is a battle that Santorum still has not won, Gingrich said.
"I think conservatives are going to have to think through what's the right strategy if they want to stop Romney," he said.
Although Gingrich is trailing both Romney and Santorum in the delegate count and the polls, and has won just two states himself, he has maintained that he is the best option to beat President Obama in the general election.
"I'm staying in the race because I really do think it's a question of who can beat Barack Obama," he said.
He also used the Obama campaign's opposition to his gas price rhetoric as proof that he's a threat. Gingrich has campaigned on a pledge to lower gas prices per gallon to $2.50, a promise Obama joked about last week.
"This has been going on for years now and over time prices start to go up — especially in an election year, politicians dust off their plans for $2 gas; I guess this year they decided to make it $2.50. Why not $2.40, why not $2.10?" he said, without bringing up Gingrich's name.
And top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, pushing back on blame for gas prices over the weekend, said Gingrich's $2.50 pledge was "not oil talk, that's snake oil talk.”
