By Carl Cameron

Published April 25, 2012

FoxNews.com

Newt Gingrich plans to formally leave the Republican presidential race next Tuesday, senior campaign aides told Fox News.

The former House speaker will “more than likely” endorse Mitt Romney when he makes his announcement to either suspend or end the campaign, a source said.

The decision comes after Gingrich huddled with senior advisers following the five primaries Romney swept on Tuesday night. Romney’s victories made it virtually impossible for Gingrich to secure the 1,144 delegates needed for the Republican nomination.

For several weeks, Gingrich staffers have been reviewing accounts and making preparations. Gingrich had been holding out hope for a strong performance at least in Delaware Tuesday night. Absent that, Gingrich decided to plan for his exit next week.

He will complete his North Carolina schedule this week, making it something of a goodbye tour while supporters, friends and family arrive from across the country for his departure from the race.

Earlier on the trail, Gingrich signaled Wednesday morning that he was preparing to drop out. Telling a breakfast gathering of county Republicans in North Carolina that it’s clear Romney will be the nominee, Gingrich said the campaign is “working out the details of our transition” and will have more information in the coming days.

“I think you have to be honest at some point about what’s happening in the real world as opposed to what you’d have like to have happened,” Gingrich said, praising the frontrunner’s primary performances Tuesday night.

“This guy has worked for six years, put together a big machine, and has put together a serious campaign,” he said. “I think obviously that I would be a better candidate but the objective fact is that the voters didn’t think that.”

Gingrich said he plans to complete his campaign schedule in North Carolina, which runs through Friday, but “I want you to know that I’ve been coming here a long time as a citizen, I’m going to keep coming as a citizen, I have a schedule through the rest of the week as a citizen.”

Gingrich said that he and Callista are still committed to going to Tampa, but made it clear that they would be attending as Romney supporters and not as spoilers for the nomination.

“I do think it’s pretty clear that Governor Romney is ultimately going to be the nominee and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that he is in fact effective and that we as a team are effective both in winning this fall and then frankly in governing,” he said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/25/gingrich-to-suspend-presidential-campaign-next-tuesday-sources-say/#ixzz1t3wC3ILM

Source CNN

Watch LIVE HERE

CNN Chief National Correspondent John King

By Chris Moody

Political Reporter

Gerald Herbert/AP

With most precincts reporting, Rick Santorum is the projected winner of the Republican presidential primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. Newt Gingrich appears to have placed second in both contests with narrow leads over Mitt Romney.

Both states allocate their delegates proportionally, so Mitt Romney will retain his wide lead in the race toward the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination. But Santorum’s victories are a huge blow to Romney’s campaign, which was hoping to put a stop to the narrative that the former governor cannot win in the traditional South. The sweep will likely provide Santorum with a major boost of enthusiausm and financial support.

“I want to say first to the people of Alabama, you made a great difference,” Santorum said from Lafayette, La. before the results of Mississippi were clear. “I don’t think there was a single poll showing me anywhere close to winning Mississippi. Not one,” he added–a true statement, though only a small handful of polls were conducted.

Speaking from Birmingham, Ala., Gingrich sounded his usual defiant note amid speculation that he would drop out of the race after failing to win either state in what is considered his strongest region of support.

“In both states, the conservative candidates got nearly 70 percent of the vote. If you’re the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you’re not much of a frontrunner,” Gingrich said. ”Mitt Romney as the inevitable just collapsed.”

Prior to the elections, all four candidates spent time campaigning in the region. Santorum had downplayed his chances of sweeping the night like he did in February in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, but said it was important to place well in order to carry on.

“We’ve got to come in here and do well,” Santorum said during a stop in Tuscaloosa on Monday.

Over the past month, money from super PACs supporting the candidates poured in both states. According to a Bloomberg News analysis of marketing data, the groups “supplied 91 percent of the 5,592 campaign ads that aired on broadcast television stations in the two states in the past month,” with pro- Romney ads making up “65 percent of all ads.”

In the days leading up to the primaries, polls showed tight races in Mississippi and Alabama. The Real Clear Politics polling average in Alabama put Gingrich in the lead by less than one percentage point over Romney, with Santorum trailing by just three percentage points. In Mississippi, the polling data was similar but much spottier, with Gingrich leading Romney by two percentage points and Santorum by five according to a single Public Policy Polling survey.

Romney did earn a victory Tuesday, winning the GOP caucus in American Samoa. Republicans are also voting in Hawaii, but those results are still unavailable.

Up next is a 52-delegate caucus in Missouri–where Santorum won a so-called “beauty contest” election last month–followed by primaries in Puerto Rico, Illinois and Louisiana over the next few weeks.