Hogan Gidley, who served as communications director for Rick Santorum's now-defunct presidential campaign, said Wednesday that his former boss will discuss an endorsement with the presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in the "next month or so."
"I do know for a fact that an endorsement will be one of the topics discussed, but of course there's no guarantee that an endorsement comes out of that meeting. It's just a conversation they're going to have," said Gidley on MSNBC.
Gidley, who has appeared numerous times on the MSNBC network since Santorum ended his bid for the presidency last week, said that the former Pennsylvania senator has an "obligation" to delegates and voters to "push forth his conservative agenda" and influence Romney as a general-election candidate.
Since announcing the suspension of his campaign, Santorum has indicated support for Romney's candidacy, but has not given an official endorsement to the former Massachusetts governor.
Speculation has grown over when and if an endorsement will occur, given Santorum's harsh criticism of Romney on the campaign trail.
The Des Moines Registar reported Tuesday that a Santorum fundraising mailing reached Iowa voters this week that said, "It truly frightens me to think what’ll happen if Mitt Romney is the nominee … Republicans and conservatives will be crippled by a nominee who presents zero contrast with Barack Obama on the major issues of this election."
When pressed by MSNBC on the campaign literature, Gidley said it was used to fundraise and blamed the mailing's timing on "third-class mail."
"It was sent out way before he [Santorum] decided to get out of the race, but it was sent out third-class mail to go out to get into people's mail boxes and it's there now, so it went on a little bit late," he said.
Former presidential contender Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) also declined to offer her former opponent an official nod of support, although she did admit there has been a "coalescing" around Romney.
"It hasn't hardly been a week yet since Sen. Santorum dropped out of the race. We're seeing coalitions coming together, as you saw, the Speaker of the House and the Republican leader of the Senate, have come out today for Governor Romney," said Bachmann on
CNN’s John King, USA Tuesday when asked if she was ready to support Romney. "I think we're seeing coalitions, whether it's social conservatives, Tea Partiers, they're assessing the situation."
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) have all announced public support of the likely Republican nominee in just the last two days.
