Republican presidential hopefuls awoke to a newly altered playing field Wednesday in the wake of the virtual dead heat in Iowa between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum ? including a decision by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann to end her campaign.
While Romney, Santorum, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich were focused on New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond, Bachmann announced she was ending her once-promising presidential bid after a sixth-place finish in Iowa.
Continue Reading?Last night the people of Iowa spoke with a clear voice, and I have decided to stand aside,? Bachmann said in a hastily scheduled news conference in Des Moines.
Rick Perry said Tuesday night he was headed home to Texas to ?reassess? his candidacy, a statement widely viewed as foreshadowing an end to Perry?s presidential ambitions. But a tweet Wednesday morning from a Twitter account Perry has been using said: ?Here we come South Carolina!?
Perry campaign manager Joe Allbaugh confirmed to POLITICO that the governor is going forward.
?Staying,? Allbaugh wrote in an email when asked whether Perry is remaining in the race.
But the decision caught some of Perry?s advisers by surprise. Some of these officials, a portion of which had urged him to drop out, thought that when the candidate said he was ?reassessing,? that was merely a prelude to a formal withdrawal.
?It seemed like everything was going to wind down and life was gonna be good, and now there?s an explosion and I don?t know what?s going on,? said one of the strategists, who added that some of Perry?s Texas backers were urging him to go forward.
As for Perry?s announcement via Twitter, the strategist said: ?Welcome to Campaign 2012.?
Meanwhile, Romney and Santorum, who were separated by only 8 votes out of the more than 122,000 straw ballots cast in Tuesday night?s caucuses, claimed new momentum, as did Paul, who finished third.
Romney headed to New Hampshire, telling reporters aboard his campaign plane that he was pleased but weary after just two hours sleep. Iowa GOP officials said Romney got 30,015 votes, to 30,007 for Santorum, with the winner declared at about 2:30 a.m. EST.
Returns from all 1,774 precincts showed Romney with 24.55 percent support and Santorum with 24.54 percent. Paul drew 21.5 percent of the votes.
But while Romney could take justifiable pride in winning ? if by a historically small margin ? a state that bedeviled him four years ago, he also will face a new effort by conservative elites who distrust him to come together behind one, anti-Romney candidate.
A group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting in Texas next weekend to find a ?consensus? Republican presidential hopeful, POLITICO has learned.
?You and your spouse are cordially invited to a private meeting with national conservative leaders of faith at the ranch of Paul and Nancy Pressler near Brenham, Texas, with the purpose of attempting to unite and to come to a consensus on which Republican Presidential candidate or candidates to support, or which not to support,? read an invitation that is making its way into inboxes this morning.
The meeting is being hosted by right-leaning figures such as James Dobson, Donald Wildmon and Gary Bauer. Many of the individuals on the host list attended an earlier closed-door session with Rick Perry last summer.
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