Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that he'd be open to campaigning for Mitt Romney after the former Massachusetts governor amassed enough delegates to clinch the nomination.
“Yeah. Look, he would make such a better president than Barack Obama
that I will campaign for him if he is the nominee, and I’ll campaign for
him enthusiastically," Gingrich told Fox News.
He also said he didn't think his remaining in the GOP presidential race was a distraction for Romney, who's looking to pivot toward a general-election campaign.
"This is a very long process … it didn’t hurt the Democrats to have
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama compete all the way into the end of
June and didn’t, frankly, help the Republicans much [to] get it over in March
last time, so I don’t worry about the calendar right now. I worry about
presenting ideas," Gingrich said.
The former Speaker noted that he's remaining in the race to help "continue to shape the debate" for the Republican Party.
It's a further signal that while he isn't ready to entirely abandon his bid for the presidency, the former House Speaker seems to have shifted his focus to helping shape the party's convention platform.
While Gingrich said he hopes to stay in the race "to win as many delegates as possible," he said that his challenge is to "put together a platform that is very effective against Barack Obama and refining the Republican Party.”
"I’m here in Delaware because I think we have a chance to win here. I was in North Carolina yesterday because we’re certainly going to win delegates in North Carolina and I’m campaigning selectively in places where we believe we’ll pick up delegates ... I also want to continue to shape the debate and continue to frame a reference here that we are a conservative party," Gingrich said.
Gingrich was less biting than in comments on Tuesday — when he said he was the only conservative remaining in the race — although he continued to draw distinctions with Mitt Romney.
“I think Romney certainly is much more conservative than Barack Obama, but I think on issues like the American energy independence plan that I’ve outlined to get gasoline below $2.50 per gallon and to eliminate our required reliance on the Middle East — the idea of creating a debt repayment plan where all royalties from oil and gas would go into paying down the national debt… There are a number of places where I think I stand for a bolder and more solutions-oriented conservatism — that’s part of what this race is all about," Gingrich said. "As we get closer to the convention, we’ll see if we can’t put together a platform that is very effective against Barack Obama and redefining the Republican Party.”
