U.S. Media: Gingrich to Quit White House Race

Newt Gingrich has decided to quit the U.S. presidential race, U.S. media reported Wednesday, paving the way for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to be crowned the Republican nominee.

Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, is expected to hold a final campaign event in Washington on Tuesday May 1, formally ending his White House bid and throwing his support behind his former opponent.

"When he says he is transitioning, what he means is that he is trying to determine as a citizen how he will pro-actively help Mitt Romney become president," CNN reported, quoting its source on condition of anonymity.

A source told Fox News that Gingrich, 68, would "more than likely," endorse Romney, a multimillionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor, when he either suspends or ends of his own campaign next week.

And NBC news said on its website that Gingrich would suspend his campaign on Tuesday and could endorse Romney's bid to oust Democratic President Barack Obama from the White House in the November general election.

Gingrich's apparent decision to step aside came the morning after Romney, 64, effectively claimed the nomination in a five-state sweep of primary contests.

After wins Tuesday in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, Romney was free to gear up his general election campaign and directly target Obama after months of tangling with Republican rivals.

Gingrich, who after a slow start briefly led polls in the Republican race, pulled off a dramatic win in the South Carolina primary back in January but that victory never produced the national momentum he hoped it would.

On all-important Super Tuesday in March, Gingrich bagged only one of the 10 states on offer, Georgia in his native south, dimming the hopes of his supporters that he might be able to reinvigorate his bid.

With Romney's main rival Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator, already out of the race, Gingrich has been under mounting pressure to stand aside and allow Romney to focus on challenging Obama in the run-up to the November 6 election.

Gingrich's withdrawal would leave only Ron Paul, a Texas congressman who represents the libertarian wing of the party, in the race. Paul consistently placed fourth in the primary season and has no chance of catching Romney.

Gingrich, the Republican Party's self-proclaimed philosopher king and its irascible, erratic showman, displayed in January exactly why he can be such a formidable opponent.

Targeted with the first question of a high-stakes live debate in the heart of America's Bible Belt, he was asked to comment on the bombshell allegation from his ex-wife that he had once requested an open marriage.

With his presidential hopes hanging in the balance, Gingrich struck out at the "destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media," saying it was "as close to despicable as anything I can imagine."

The stunning counter-attack, which played brilliantly to the innate conservative distrust of the liberal media, transformed the former House speaker from villain to hero and recast his campaign.

In the end though, the unexpected surge of conservative rival Santorum stole a lot of the fire from Gingrich's campaign.

Santorum, a 53-year-old former Pennsylvania senator, enjoyed improbable successes in the South and the Midwest, splitting the conservative vote and making it incredibly hard for Gingrich to challenge Romney.