Gingrich thanks supporters as he exits race

The Associated Press

Newt Gingrich thanked supporters yesterday, a day before he officially leaves the Republican presidential race, and pledged to work hard to prevent the "genuine disaster" he says would come from re-electing President Barack Obama.

Gingrich said in a video message posted on his website that he will close his campaign today. "Your help was vital," he tells supporters in the nearly two-minute video.

The former House speaker doesn't mention Mitt Romney, the all-but-certain GOP presidential nominee, but said he would continue working to deny Obama a second term.

Gingrich scheduled his announcement for this afternoon in Arlington, Va.

After finishing poorly in five Northeastern primaries last week, Gingrich indicated he would leave the race. He won only two contests, Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years, and South Carolina. His campaign has reported being more than $4 million in debt.

By the time he decided to bow out, he had already weathered more crises than appeared survivable. His entire senior staff quit en masse last summer, saying he wouldn't devote enough time to fundraising or campaigning in key states. He promptly announced he would run a "substantive, solutions-oriented" race, as if he hadn't supervised the hiring of numerous consultants in the preceding months.

When other challengers to Romney faded, Gingrich led the polls late last year before the Iowa caucuses, only to be knocked back by a strong barrage of attack ads financed by a super PAC aligned with Romney.

Somehow, he recovered once more, and won the South Carolina primary in January, before losing Florida and beginning a long, final fade.