Gingrich trims staff in hopes of surviving

last updated 8 January 2015

Out of cash and trailing a distant third in delegates, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has laid off one third of his staff and fired his campaign manager, but vows to fight on to the convention in August. The former House speaker, who has won only 135 delegates (compared with 273 for Rick Santorum and 568 for Mitt Romney), will curtail his campaign appearances, turning instead to cheap Web-based communications tools to get his message out. Spokesman Joe DeSantis said the new strategy is to survive until a deadlocked convention, where Gingrich hopes to “emerge as the one candidate who can unite social, economic, and national-security conservatives.”