A group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting in Texas next weekend to find a ?consensus? Republican presidential hopeful, POLITICO has learned.
?You and your spouse are cordially invited to a private meeting with national conservative leaders of faith at the ranch of Paul and Nancy Pressler near Brenham, Texas, with the purpose of attempting to unite and to come to a consensus on which Republican presidential candidate or candidates to support, or which not to support,? read an invitation that is making its way into in-boxes Wednesday morning.
Continue ReadingThe meeting is being hosted by such prominent conservative figures as James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Don Wildmon, onetime chairman of the American Family Association; and Gary Bauer, himself a former presidential candidate.
Many of the individuals on the host list attended a previous closed-door session with Rick Perry this summer, but Perry?s candidacy stalled out, and he returned to Texas after a disappointing fifth-place finish in Iowa.
Movement conservatives are concerned that a vote split between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum among base voters could enable Mitt Romney to grab the GOP nomination. A source who shared the invitation said the meeting was about how to avoid such a possibility.
Yet time is short, with New Hampshire Tuesday and both South Carolina and Florida contests in January. In many ways, the Texas meeting is an 11th-hour version of the conversation that many conservative activists have been having for more than a year, how to find a down-the-line conservative to stop Romney ? and until now, they?ve come up short.
Romney edged out Santorum by eight votes in the Iowa caucuses, and Gingrich placed a distant fourth, behind Ron Paul.
Santorum seems best positioned to take on the mantle of Romney-stopper, particularly given his own appeal to evangelical voters in Iowa, but his sudden surge has left him heading into future contests short of cash and on-the-ground organizations in upcoming states.
Gingrich praised Santorum in his concession speech Tuesday in Iowa, but showed no sign of dropping out of the race ? pledging to assail Romney as a ?Massachusetts moderate? while campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Michele Bachmann, who never caught fire with conservative elites, ended her campaign Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, a prominent Iowa conservative, Bob Vander Platts, called on Republicans to unite behind Santorum in hopes of stopping Romney. Vander Platts, who has backed Santorum, suggested Gingrich should reassess his candidacy.
If Republicans are going to put up a ?pro-family conservative against Mitt Romney, some decisions need to be made,? the former gubernatorial candidate told reporters at a Santorum rally.
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