Rick Santorum Officially Endorses Mitt Romney For President

Rick Santorum has officially endorsed Mitt Romney as the GOP Presidential candidate for the 2012 election. Santorum endorsed the GOP front-runner in an email to his supporters on Monday night.

Santorum’s email follows a meeting with Romney in his hometown of Pittsburgh on Friday as the reason he finally decided to endorse the GOP candidate, who most have assumed will be the Republican nominee. Santorum wrote that:

“On Friday, Governor Romney came to Pittsburgh for an over-hour long one-on-one meeting. The conversation was candid, collegial and focused on the issues that you helped me give voice to during our campaign; because I believe they are essential ingredients to not only winning this fall, but turning our country around.”

His email also thanked his supporters, and mentioned that the former presidential hopeful had been counseled by many about formally endorsing a candidate for the election. He went on to say:

“Thank you for your counsel, it has been most helpful. However, I felt that it was completely impossible for me to even consider an endorsement until after a meeting to discuss issues critical to those of us who often feel our voices are not heard by the establishment: social conservatives, tea party supporters, lower and middle income working families.”

Rick Santorum went on to say that:

“[I] felt a deep responsibility to assess Governor Romney’s commitment to addressing the issues most important to conservatives, as well his commitment to ensuring our appropriate representation in a Romney administration.’

He said of the meeting, and his agreement with Romney to endorse the Republican Presidential hopeful that:

“And you can be sure that I will work with the Governor to help him in this task to ensure he has a strong team that will support him in his conservative policy initiatives…above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated. The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Governor Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime.”

Santorum’s email was reportedly a decision he made himself, not at the suggestion of advisors, who expected him to officially endorse a candidate during his appearance at “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Tuesday.