Elections

Gingrich wins Ga., loses Tenn., Okla., but declares comeback

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
Font Size:

With a win in just one out of the ten states going to the polls on Super Tuesday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich declared victory and the beginnings of a comeback.

Gingrich scored a big win in his home state of Georgia — the state with the single most delegates at stake Tuesday — winning by a large enough margin that the networks and the Associated Press were able to call the race as soon as the polls closed at 7 p.m.

But it is a far cry from the Southern sweep that Gingrich had projected — both Oklahoma and Tennessee, the two other states Gingrich competed heavily in, were called for Santorum.

Nonetheless, Gingrich called it a comeback.

“Thank you Georgia! It is gratifying to win my home state so decisively to launch our March Momentum,” he tweeted after his win.

His campaign sent out an email from Herman Cain, which began, “I am writing to tell you that my good friend Newt Gingrich is back! … Newt won an impressive victory tonight. He won Georgia, the state with the most delegates on Super Tuesday. He’s got the momentum right now.”

Gingrich’s victory speech was alternately a history lesson and a verbal assault, going after Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, the “elite” and the media, by turns. (RELATED: The Daily Caller’s interactive elections map)

“We are not going to allow the elite to decide who we’re allowed to nominate,” Gingrich told the crowd, taking a jab at Romney, who has been painted as wealthy and out of touch.

That same “national elite, especially in the Republican Party,” Gingrich went on, “had decided that a Gingrich presidency was so frightening that they had to kill it early.”

The speech was in large part a defense of his lack of funds, a deficiency he said can be more than made up for with ideas.

“Wall Street money can be beaten by Main Street work,” Gingrich said, using “Wall Street money” as a stand-in for Romney.

After he surged in December, Gingrich said, “Wall Street money decided that only a relentlessly negative $5 million campaign would work” in Iowa, referring to when Romney and his super PACs buried Gingrich in negative ads, leaving him with a disappointing loss in the nation’s first caucuses.

But, Gingrich insisted, money was not the be all, end all, and despite being clobbered by negative ads in Florida, he touted a win in the northern part of the state — a state he ultimately lost to Romney.

The deep pockets of President Barack Obama would likewise not be an issue, Gingrich said, because there was not a single Republican candidate who would be able to outraise the incumbent president. Gingrich said he was the only candidate who could take on the president in ideas and in a debate.

Despite his decided lack of a Southern surge Tuesday, Gingrich said the future of his campaign is in the South. He told supporters that he would spend the next week campaigning in Mississippi, Alabama and Kansas, setting himself up to play as a regional candidate.

Follow Alexis on Twitter