Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum to Meet on May 4
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AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The presumptive Republican nominee and the candidate who gave him a run for his money will meet next Friday, sources familiar with the meeting tell ABC News.
However, an endorsement by Rick Santorum is unlikely to come out of his meeting with Mitt Romney.
Santorum suspended his campaign exactly two weeks ago Tuesday.
The meeting will give the former rivals a chance to talk through a number of policy issues. High on Santorum’s agenda will be ensuring that Romney supports the repeal of President Obama’s health care reform law and that he will not replace it with a mandate. (Romney mentions his intent to repeal “Obamacare” in almost every stump speech).
More generally, according to a Santorum aide, “we want to make sure that conservatives, Tea Partiers and middle America has a strong voice in the Romney campaign.”
Discussion of an endorsement will be one item on the agenda, and there are no indications that Santorum won’t eventually get behind the former Massachusetts governor, but a source said, “I would be shocked” if Santorum were to immediately announce his support of Romney after the two get together.
But as a Romney aide mentioned on a conference call Tuesday — the night that the campaign views as the symbolic start of the general election — “What is clear to nearly everyone is that our party is united behind Mitt Romney.”
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