Newt Gingrich, 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate | featured news

The last time the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential race met on a debate stage, all eyes were on Newt Gingrich, who was trying to ride the momentum off his surprise victory in South Carolina.

The battle for the Republican presidential nomination heads into a potentially decisive phase over the next two weeks with contests in 13 states that could finally answer some of the questions that have defined the race.

Newt Gingrich conceded Sunday that losing his home state of Georgia in the upcoming Super Tuesday primaries in March would "badly" weaken his candidacy.

A resurgent Rick Santorum hopes to spring his next big surprise in Michigan. Newt Gingrich looks for a campaign revival in the Bible Belt. Mitt Romney has his home state of Massachusetts, and the luxury of picking his spots elsewhere, if not everywhere, as the race for the Republican presidential nomination roars back to life.

Newt Gingrich hedged whether he could win his old home state on Super Tuesday as he campaigned through the vote-rich Atlanta area with Herman Cain at his side amid incursions from Mitt Romney and a surging Rick Santorum.

Newt Gingrich "predicted during a press conference following Saturday's Nevada caucuses that he would emerge as the GOP front-runner again by the Texas primary," the Washington Post reports.

"The one problem with that: We have no idea when Texas will hold its primary. A spat over redistricting is likely to push it beyond its scheduled date, April 3."

Newt Gingrich is challenging Florida's winner-take-all primary, arguing in a letter that is being sent Thursday that since the state held its primary early that it must award delegates proportionally under existing Republican National Committee policies.

Mitt Romney can argue that winning ugly is still winning, especially in a contest he could not afford to lose. But Romney’s decisive victory in Florida came at a price. He aggravated Newt Gingrich’s hostility to him, with all the trouble that could entail, and left behind a dispirited Republican electorate in a state the GOP needs to win this fall.

Mitt Romney won the Florida presidential primary Tuesday, taking a long stride toward capturing the GOP nomination and dealing a potentially mortal blow to the hopes of the once-resurgent Newt Gingrich.