Perry drops out of race, endorses Gingrich

Mitt Romney’s seemingly inevitable path to the Republican nomination for president became less certain yesterday, as Rick Perry dropped out of the race and endorsed Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum was belatedly declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses.

Perry — who had been polling low in South Carolina, which will hold its primary tomorrow — said in a speech yesterday that his candidacy had “no viable path to victory.”

“It was a long way coming,” Wharton and Engineering freshman Jason Kong said of Perry’s exit. “At this point, it’s about narrowing down the candidates.”

Perry threw his support behind Gingrich, whom he called “a conservative visionary who can transform our country.”

Wharton sophomore Jay Leventhal, who identifies himself as a Republican, said he “did not have a positive opinion” of Perry or Gingrich.

“I’m personally in favor of Mitt Romney,” he said. “I like his corporate support.”

But Perry’s endorsement may come as bad news for Romney, who has recently been losing ground to Gingrich in South Carolina.

A Rasmussen poll released yesterday even found that Gingrich had surged ahead of Romney among likely Republican voters in South Carolina, 33 percent to 31 percent. Just two days ago, Romney enjoyed a lead of 14 percentage points.

The poll found that Perry came in last among major candidates, with only 2 percent of the vote.

After finishing in fifth place in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Perry reconsidered his candidacy but decided to remain in the race. He skipped campaigning in New Hampshire, which Romney won, to focus on the South Carolina primary.

“I really still believe that Perry is the real conservative alternative to Mitt Romney,” Kerry Marsh, his former state campaign manager, had said in advance of New Hampshire’s Jan. 10 primary. “He still has the infrastructure and funds to continue the campaign in South Carolina.”

But these advantages were not enough to overcome his low support in the state.

Perry’s withdrawal from the race comes three days after Jon Huntsman, a 1987 College graduate, also pulled out. Unlike Perry, Huntsman endorsed Romney, calling him “the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama.”

But Romney’s once-cemented position as frontrunner is now being challenged not only by Gingrich, but also by Santorum.

The Republican Party of Iowa declared yesterday that it was Santorum, not Romney, who won the Iowa caucuses. A preliminary decision had given Romney the victory by eight votes, but a revised vote total found that Santorum was the winner by 34 votes.

“This now means that we have one win and Mitt Romney has one win,” Santorum wrote in a campaign email. “This incredible news will certainly put fear in the hearts of the establishment.”

Santorum’s win in Iowa “keeps things interesting,” Kong said. “It’s still anybody’s game.”

Perry’s withdrawal, Gingrich’s rise and Santorum’s victory all add a measure of uncertainty for Romney going into tomorrow’s South Carolina primary.

“The narrative that Governor Romney and the media have been touting of ‘inevitability’ has been destroyed,” Santorum spokesperson Hogan Gidley said in a statement. “Conservatives can now see and believe they don’t have to settle for Romney.”

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