Rick Santorum quits GOP race, leaves doors open for future run

While the former Pennsylvanian Senator Rick Santorum lasted much longer in the GOP race than anyone could have possibly predicted, the presidential hopeful announced Tuesday that he’s suspending his run, clearing the way for front running candidate Mitt Romney.

Santorum said that though he had not given up yet, the race was over for him. "We made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me and we will suspend our campaign effective today. We are not done fighting," the former senator said, according to a report on MSNBC. The decision came amid the growing chorus from his party members to let the Republicans join forces between one candidate, insisting that quitting at this point will allow him to re-run for the next general elections.

Santorum was the last viable challenger to Mitt Romney, and suspending the run means he's further cleared out the way for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has already won more than half of the delegates required to lock the Republican nomination.

Santorum's announcement has arrived only two weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, for which the candidate was hopeful would give his campaign the much needed boost. While Pennsylvania is Santorum’s home state, he was hoping a similar win in Wisconsin last Tuesday, due to its conservative majority, but lost it to Mitt Romney. Suspending the campaign now has also saved him of the embarrassment of losing in his home state.

To some extent, Santorum’s decision to drop out was also influenced by his three-year-old daughter’s second health scare. Santorum’s daughter, Isabella, is suffering from a chromosomal disease called Trisomy 18 and he thinks that he should be spending more time with his family at this point.

After three months of fighting back, Santorum had built a strong base of supporters among evangelical Christians and voters who call themselves as "extremely conservative", while winning 11 out of a total of 37 contests.

Now that Santorum has called it quits, his senior campaign strategist, John Brabender, suggests that the former senator will now direct his efforts towards the victory of Mitt Romney. "Rick Santorum is going to do everything he can to defeat Barack Obama, and we all know Gov. Romney is now going to be the nominee," said Mr. Brabender, insisting that he can "help immensely in activating" conservative voters, the area where Romney lacks.