Rick Santorum drops out of presidential campaign

Rick Santorum dropped out of his presidential campaign Tuesday after falling far behind front-runner Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican nomination.

The former senator from Pennsylvania said he was suspending his campaign, effectively ending his bid to be the Republican who will face President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 general election.

"We will never be a country that can go forward as a great and powerful country again unless we remember who we are and what makes us Americans. That's what our campaign was about," Santorum said in Gettysburg, near the Civil War battle site.

Santorum was lagging Romney in opinion polls and in the fight for the 1,144 party delegates needed to win the nomination.

A devout Catholic with seven children, Santorum failed to stretch his appeal far enough beyond conservatives and some blue-collar Republicans to be able to overtake Romney.

Santorum did not say if he would endorse Romney or the other two Republican candidates, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, both of whom are way behind former Massachusetts governor Romney.