Rick Santorum ends Republican presidential campaign

Rick Santorum has dropped his campaign to be named the Republican candidate for the forthcoming Presidential elections in America.

The ulta-conservative christian Republican was one of several contenders in the race to be named the party’s candidate to stand against President Obama. Other notable contenders in the race have included Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Santorum’s decision to end his campaign means that rival Mitt Romney is now the presumptive nominee. While Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul remain in the race neither are likely to overtake Romney at this late stage.

Santorum announced his decision to step down at a presence conference in Gettysburg. The Republican said ‘While this presidential race is over for me, we are not done fighting’. The campaign between Santorum and rival Mitt Romney had become bitter in recent months which some fears that the battle between the two would damage the Republican party.

Santorum’s ultra-conservative views may have won him much support from fellow Republicans but they did little to win over critics or the main-stream press. The Republican took a firm stance against LGBT issues including gay marriage and the right for gay personnel to serve openly in the American military. Santorum described marriage as a “privilege” that gay couples should be banned, by law, from having and if he were elected he vowed to amend the American constitution banning gay marriage outright and invalidating existing ones. Santorum also compared the legalise of gay marriage to legalising group marriages.

However, it was not just Santorum’s views on LGBT issues that prompted criticism; he famously spoke out against pornography but perhaps most important his pro-life views put him at odds with some. While he is a supporter of the death penalty the politician is not a supporter of abortion even in cases of rape or incest – describing children as a “blessing from god”.

The Republican is not alone though as his anti-gay, pro-life view point is shared with many of his fellow candidates and many of those within the wider Republican party as well.