text: BILOXI, Miss.—Even as pressure mounts on Newt Gingrich to drop out of the Republican presidential contest, the former House speaker is preparing to stick it out—with a new short-term goal of keeping Mitt Romney from securing the nomination. 
   
   After mustering no better than second place in Tuesday's GOP Primaries, but beating Mitt Romney in Alabama and Mississippi, Newt Gingrich tells supporters he has no intention of dropping out of the race. 
   
   Mr. Gingrich faced crucial primary tests Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi, states where he campaigned hard to jump-start his flagging campaign. He lost both to former Sen. Rick Santorum, though he appeared on track to finish a respectable second in both. Even if he had realized his dream of winning both, though, some Republican officials doubt that would have generated enough momentum to win the nomination. 
   
   Still, Mr. Gingrich and his advisers say he isn't going anywhere. In a concession speech, Mr. Gingrich was gracious to Mr. Santorum, while calling the results an indictment of Mr. Romney, widely seen as the front-runner. "I believe that after the primaries are over it will be obvious the so-called front-runner in fact didn't get there, and from that point we will be in a whole different conversation," Mr. Gingrich said. 
   
   WSJ's Danny Yadron takes a look at presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's failed strategy to win primaries in Alabama and Mississippi and discusses his future in the campaign. AP Photo. 
   
   As those remarks suggest, Mr. Gingrich and his campaign have embraced a new goal, which is to block Mr. Romney. "He believes the long haul is to get enough delegates to stop Romney from getting the nomination before the convention," said campaign chairman Bob Walker, a former congressman. "If Romney is stopped, I don't think he gets the nomination at the convention." 
   
   And if the race can be pushed into the convention, Gingrich supporters say, any sense that the former Massachusetts governor is the inevitable nominee would be punctured. 
   
   Still, there now will be pressure for Mr. Gingrich to clear the way for Mr. Santorum to be the single alternative to Mr. Romney. Conservative GOP activist Keith Appell, for instance, argued Tuesday night that Mr. Santorum "has earned the opportunity to take on Romney in a two-man race." 
   
   And Bill Armistead, chairman of the Alabama Republican party, said that "just looking at the numbers, it's hard to see it coming out in [Mr. Gingrich's] favor." 
   
   Besides the goal of pushing the party's decision into the convention, though, Mr. Gingrich has other reasons to be reluctant to abandon his campaign. He has grand political ambitions that didn't end with his tenure as House speaker in the 1990s. After years earning a lucrative living as a consultant, his friends say, Mr. Gingrich wants a final chapter in public life, and this is likely his last bid for public office. "When you've been thinking about running for president for many years, and you've been running for a couple of years, what's three more weeks, or even three more months?" said Kellyanne Conway, who does polling and strategy for the Gingrich campaign. 
   
   At age 68, he isn't under the financial pressure a younger candidate might be. He was worth more than $6.5 million in 2010, according to his financial-disclosure form filed with the Federal Election Commission. 
   
   "There's not a lot to worry about from his perspective," said Rick Tyler, a strategist for Mr. Gingrich's super PAC, an outside political-action committee that is supporting his candidacy. 
   
   Mr. Gingrich "could retire to Hawaii, play golf in the morning, do [TV appearances] at three in the afternoon and go to dinner," Mr. Tyler said. Instead, though, he appears to be driven by a desire to fill what he sees as a "historic" moment, a sentiment he shares often on the stump. 
   
   "I want to be straightforward: I am a visionary," he told an Alabama crowd last week. 
   
   As a result, Ralph Reed, a conservative activist who is head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, doesn't expect Mr. Gingrich to step away. "As long as there is money in the bank account and gas in the bus, I expect Newt to keep going," he said. "It's clearly a problem for Santorum, but it's a gift for Mitt because it prevents the kind of mano-a-mano contest between Romney and the non-Romney candidate." 
   
   Getty Images Newt Gingrich addressed a Birmingham, Ala., country club on Tuesday. 
   
   The biggest question for Mr. Gingrich, though, may be how long his campaign can afford to carry on. It spends most of what it takes in and still carries debt from earlier in the nomination fight, according to a person familiar with the matter. The operation reported carrying more than $1.7 million in debt at the end of January, according to the most recent available records. 
   
   Yet the campaign recently moved its Georgia political director to Louisiana, which votes March 24. Earlier this week, it released a post-Tuesday campaign schedule that included stops in Illinois, which votes next Tuesday. It believes it has succeeded in preventing Mr. Romney from running away with the nomination and that it now has an opportunity in Texas, California, Maryland and North Carolina, which votes May 8. 
   
   Those plans signal more confidence than a week ago, when Mr. Gingrich's spokesman, R.C. Hammond, told reporters multiple times that Mr. Gingrich needed to win both Alabama and Mississippi to remain credible. 
   
   Mr. Walker essentially conceded that Mr. Gingrich would be hard-pressed to collect more delegates than Mr. Romney, but he rejected the argument that he should drop out of the race to allow conservatives opposed to Mr. Romney to consolidate behind Mr. Santorum. "Both of us are accumulating delegates state by state that are not allowing Romney to be the inevitable candidate," said Mr. Walker. 
   
   Write to Janet Hook at janet.hook@wsj.com and Danny Yadron at danny.yadron@wsj.com ||||| With back-to-back losses in the Deep South Tuesday night, Newt Gingrich suffered a third defeat: He lost any of the remaining logic behind his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. 
   
   His claims to primacy in the South after winning the South Carolina and Georgia primaries evaporated with losses in both Mississippi and Alabama. 
   
   Adding to the sting? The former House speaker who used to represent the Atlanta suburbs in Congress lost both to Rick Santorum, a former senator from the North - Pennsylvania. 
   
   In addition, the fig leaf Gingrich has claimed as the target of relentless and excessive negative advertising from rival Mitt Romney dissolved as Santorum started to win contests and he himself became the target of the former Massachusetts governor’s wrath. 
   
   Santorum has shown an ability to win in spite of it, not lose because of it. 
   
   That leaves the final argument Gingrich has made: that he is the conservative alternative to the “Massachusetts moderate” he has branded Romney. 
   
   A string of wins not just in the South but also the Midwest has lent credence to Santorum’s claim that, rather, he is the true right-wing alternative to Romney. 
   
   It also buttresses his argument that he could fare even better in his quest for the nomination if Gingrich quit the race so he could go head-to-head with frontrunner. 
   
   Even before the polls closed, Gingrich was portending primary disaster, with his staff issuing a memorandum offering a preemptive justification for him remaining a candidate should he lose both of the evening’s contests. 
   
   Senior Adviser Randy Evans and Political Director Martin Baker argued that “Gingrich is well positioned to win the GOP nomination.” 
   
   They noted that heading into Louisiana, only states with a total of 1,141 possible delegates will have voted - short itself of the 1,144 needed for the nomination. 
   
   “The sequencing and pace of the second half favors Newt. When this process started, Newt’s team had two goals: block an early Romney nomination; and plan for a sequenced and paced second half. Newt stopped Romney in South Carolina and subsequently weathered a multi-million dollar barrage of attacks in Florida, surviving to win in Georgia on Super Tuesday,” wrote Evans and Baker. 
   
   “Here is the bottom-line reality: this nomination will not be decided until the fourth quarter – and that is not until June. It also means that the candidate who closes strongest in this race is going to win,” they added. “So buckle up. This race is not going to be won or lost over backroom deals or endless and mind-numbing discussions in the media over delegate counts.” 
   
   The campaign also tried to dispel the ongoing speculation about his candidacy ending by issuing a schedule with seven stops in Illinois between today and Thursday. 
   
   Gingrich himself told his supporters in a non-concession speech: “If you’re the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you’re not much of a frontrunner.” 
   
   The Gingrich campaign wasn’t the only one with overly optimistic expectations for Tuesday. 
   
   Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor and onetime GOP candidate who now supports Romney, told CNN: “The resilience of Mitt Romney is starting to show through. When he was way behind in Florida, he came back and beat Newt Gingrich. When he was behind in Ohio, he came back and beat Rick Santorum. The same in Michigan and some other places.” 
   
   He added: “I mean if Mitt Romney does well in those Southern states tonight, the script gets rewritten. I mean that’s a breakthrough moment.” 
   
   The candidate himself was strident. 
   
   “Senator Santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign,” Romney told CNN. “I mean, he’s far behind in the delegate count. He’s far behind in the popular vote count. If you look at the math of how many delegates he’d have to win to become the nominee, it’s a very difficult road for him.” 
   
   In a statement after the results were in, Romney said: “I am pleased that we will be increasing our delegate count in a very substantial way after tonight. Ann and I made a lot of new friends in Alabama and Mississippi and we look forward to campaigning in those states in the general election.” 
   
   Senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told CNN that Romney’s goal was not to win an “away game” in the South, but to secure one-third of the delegates up for grabs Tuesday. 
   
   Doing so, he argued, would maintain a status quo in the overall campaign standings. 
   
   “Look, this is a delegate contest,” said Fehrnstrom. “Once the dust clears, you’ll be able to look and see that there really will be no ground that our opponents have made up against Mitt Romney.” 
   
   Santorum scoffed at that assessment through the day and during his victory remarks Tuesday night in Lafayette, La., where he had pre-positioned in anticipation of that state’s primary next week. 
   
   “Well, for someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable,” Santorum said in a shot at Romney. 
   
   He added that he would “compete everywhere,” and said: “The time is now for conservatives to pull together.” 
   
   The former senator argues that he is the conservative of choice because he can compete against President Obama on all issues, including health care, where he says Romney will falter because he signed a universal health care law in Massachusetts that was the model for Obama’s federal plan. 
   
   The fourth and final candidate in the race, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, exceeds even Gingrich in being a longshot for the nomination. 
   
   Through Tuesday night, he continues to be the only candidate who has not won either a primary or a caucus. 
   
   He largely skipped the South, despite being a Texan, and instead is concentrating on the Illinois primary next week. 
   
   His campaign touted a rally he is holding today with over 1,000 voters at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. 
   
   As impressive as that number may be, though, if it doesn’t translate into votes, it won’t help him advance toward the goal he, Gingrich, and the others share: being elected president of the United States. 
   
   Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. ||||| Story highlights Gingrich suffers devastating losses in Mississippi and Alabama 
   
   Gingrich has lost ground among key GOP voting blocs 
   
   Santorum has two big wins Tuesday, but has a tough climb toovercome Romney 
   
   Santorum and Gingrich hope to prevent Romney from winning a majority of delegates 
   
   If Newt Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, where can he win? The former House speaker fell short in the heart of Dixie on Tuesday, and it's not clear where he goes from here. 
   
   Approaching the halfway mark of the primary season, Gingrich has finished first in a grand total of two states: South Carolina and his home state of Georgia. 
   
   Geographically, bright red Alabama and Mississippi were virtual home turf for the former speaker -- two must-win states for him to at least claim the title of regional powerhouse. 
   
   Compared to South Carolina and Georgia, however, there was a clear, critical decline in Gingrich's support among several key groups on Tuesday. 
   
   Among self-described very conservative voters, Gingrich won 33% of the vote in Mississippi and 37% in Alabama. In South Carolina and Georgia, he won 48% and 53%. 
   
   Among evangelical or born-again voters, Gingrich won 30% of the vote in Mississippi and 31% in Alabama. In South Carolina and Georgia, he won 44% and 50%. 
   
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   Among strong tea party supporters, Gingrich won 34% of the vote in Mississippi and 38% in Alabama. In South Carolina and Georgia, he won 48% and 55%. 
   
   Similar declines among all three voting blocs occurred in comparison to the Florida Panhandle -- a traditional Deep South region. Gingrich narrowly won the Panhandle during the Sunshine State's January 31 primary, according to exit polls. 
   
   Last week, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the former speaker had to win Alabama and Mississippi in order to remain viable. Gingrich later asserted that he's going on to the national convention in Tampa no matter what happens. 
   
   Bravado aside, at some point the money dries up and voters stop listening. For Gingrich, that point may have come Tuesday night. 
   
   "If (Gingrich) can't win in the South, he needs to go," said Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of the conservative RedState.org. 
   
   If Gingrich does go, Santorum will get the one-on-one challenge to Mitt Romney he's been all but pleading for. Romney told CNN Tuesday afternoon that Santorum is facing a "desperate end" to his campaign. Santorum's big wins on Tuesday night indicate that end is anything but nigh. 
   
   "It's just the beginning," Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said. 
   
   "This is a grassroots campaign for president," Santorum told a group of supporters in Louisiana Tuesday night. It's managing to "defy the odds day in and day out." 
   
   This race has now become an arduous delegate slog. The first man to claw his way to a bare majority of 1,144 wins. Heading into Tuesday, Romney had 459 delegates, Santorum had 203, and Gingrich had 118, according to CNN estimates. Ron Paul trailed badly, with 66 delegates. 
   
   Prior to Tuesday, Romney needed to win roughly 48% of the remaining delegates to go over the top. Santorum needed about 66% of the remaining delegates, and Gingrich needed 72%. 
   
   Given the calendar and the GOP's rules regarding the proportional allocation of delegates, it's tough to see a scenario under which anyone overtakes Romney. Santorum, Romney, and Gingrich each won roughly a third of the combined delegates at stake in Mississippi and Alabama. 
   
   Realistically, the name of the game for Santorum -- and Gingrich if he goes on -- is to prevent Romney from hitting the 1,144-delegate mark and push for a contested convention when the Republicans meet in Tampa in August. 
   
   Can it be done? Most analysts still expect Romney to eventually seal the deal in May or June, but the GOP's conservative base continues, on the whole, to be remarkably resistant to calls to fall in line behind the frontrunner. 
   
   "If we go to a convention, we would be signaling our doom in terms of replacing President Obama," Romney told Fox News earlier this week. "That will not happen." 
   
   There hasn't been a seriously contested convention since Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan battled down to the bitter end 36 years ago. The odds of another contested convention are long, but the game of presidential politics is anything but predictable.
target: – Newt Gingrich lost both Mississippi and Alabama last night, and the calls for him to drop out have risen to a deafening roar. Here's what pundits are saying: "If Newt Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, where can he win?" asks CNN. The states are "virtual home turf" for the ex-speaker. Dig deeper, and the numbers keep looking bad; Gingrich saw sharp declines among key groups like very conservative voters and evangelicals. Gingrich "lost any of the remaining logic behind his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination," writes Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe. He can't even claim he was derailed by Mitt Romney's attack machine—Rick Santorum "has shown an ability to win in spite of it." NPR notes that it's now impossible for Gingrich to get the 1,144 delegates needed to beat Romney. "Gingrich has long been an advocate for thinking 'outside the box,' but lately he has moved outside the box where one finds the calculator, abacus, and the times table." "It is time for Santorum vs. Romney and let the chips fall where they may," agrees Erick Erickson of Red State. A one-on-one contest will give Romney "a run for his money he needs to become a candidate conservatives can potentially rally around." But don't hold your breath. Gingrich's advisers tell the Wall Street Journal that he's staying in—purely to make sure Romney doesn't get enough delegates to clinch the nomination.