Romney gains in Santorum’s home state

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is losing support in his home state of Pennsylvania, as a new poll shows Mitt Romney within striking distance in his rival’s backyard.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, leads Romney 30% to 28% among GOP voters in the Franklin & Marshall College Poll out Wednesday. In February, Santorum had a 29-percentage-point lead in the survey.

Romney, the GOP front-runner, is nearly halfway to the 1,144 delegates he needs for the presidential nomination.

Romney has won his home state of Massachusetts as well as Michigan, where he was born. Newt Gingrich won Georgia, where he was a congressman for 20 years. — Catalina Camia

Rubio endorses Romney

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida endorsed Mitt Romney as the party’s presidential nominee Wednesday night, saying it’s increasingly clear Romney will win the nomination and continuing the primary fight will only damage the effort to defeat President Obama.

Rubio, a freshman senator and Tea Party favorite, said he’s convinced Romney will govern as a conservative and will be superior to Obama as a president.

Rubio had pledged to stay neutral in the race. On Wednesday in an interview with Fox News, he called a possible floor fight over the nomination at the GOP convention in August “a recipe to deliver four more years to Barack Obama.”