"I disagree with Sen McCain on a number of issues," Romney said when he announced his decision to bow out of the race. "But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and I agree with him on eliminating al Qaeda and terror worldwide."
Romney had suspended his campaign two weeks ago as McCain's chief rival, coming in second based on delegate counts. Romney will "release" his delegates to McCain to help the Arizona senator move faster to "secure the nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats for November", according to one source to CNN.
Releasing delegates means that Romney will encourage them to support McCain's candidacy. If successful, those delegates would give McCain 1,013 total delegates, only 78 short to secure the nomination.
Huckabee, the only top-tier Republican candidate left in the race besides McCain, has 217 delegates.
Despite the near impossibility of winning, Huckabee said he will continue to run.
"I think still the Republican Party ought to be big enough to have the debate, the discussion and an election," said Huckabee after Romney's endorsement of McCain, according to CNN. "If we have a battle and [McCain] wins, he wins.
"But he hasn't won yet so I just think it's a little bit premature to go ahead and slice the cake when you haven't had the wedding yet."
The former Arkansas governor said there is a "'me too' herd mentality" in the GOP in supporting McCain.
"What I'm concerned about is that there are a whole lot of people out here in middle America who are feeling left out," he said. "They're feeling their votes aren't even going to be counted."
The next contests for Republicans will be in Wisconsin and Washington on Tuesday. Democratic candidates will also compete for Wisconsin and Hawaii on the same day.
