Conservative Leaders Gather in Texas to Raise Money for Santorum
Over 200 conservative leaders met in Texas over the weekend to strategize and raise money for presidential candidate Rick Santorum and the super PAC supporting him. Many of them were also at the Texas meeting in January in which a supermajority of those present voted to throw their support behind Santorum.
"The message was, 'we're all in,'" Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and one of the event's organizers, told Politico Saturday.
The Houston Omni event raised a combined $1.78 million for the campaign and super PAC, according to organizers.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and James Dobson, founder and former president of Focus on the Family, were among the leaders present at the event. Besides Fischer, conservative columnist Rebecca Hagelin, campaign fundraising pioneer Richard Viguerie, and Tim LeFever also played host.
Santorum met with the group on Friday night and told them he has a chance to win, but needs their help, Perkins told Politico. Perkins also said that Santorum would have a better chance if Newt Gingrich withdrew from the race and Gingrich supporters backed Santorum.
"If they were to converge together you would have a majority," Perkins said. Neither Perkins nor Family Research Council have endorsed a candidate in the presidential race.
When asked, Santorum did not call for Gingrich to withdraw from the race, but emphasized Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that his chances would improve if Gingrich dropped out.
"I'd like everybody to get out. That would be great if they could just clear the field," Santorum said with a chuckle. "Congressman Gingrich, the speaker, can stay in as long as he wants, but I think the better opportunity to make sure that we nominate a conservative is to give us an opportunity to go head-to-head with Governor Romney at some point. Hopefully, that will occur sooner rather than later."
The next contests for the Republican presidential nomination will be on Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi. Recent polls show Gingrich, Romney and Santorum in a three-way tie in Alabama and Romney leading in Mississippi with about 35 percent support.
