Newt Gingrich's Saturday win over Mitt
Romney in the South Carolina presidential primary is being lauded by
the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's most
vociferous opponent of gay marriage.
Gingrich finished with 40.4 percent of
the South Carolina vote, far ahead of second-place finisher Mitt
Romney, who received 27.8 percent of the vote. Rick Santorum came in
third (17%) and Ron Paul (13%) fourth.
The former speaker of the House turned
a last-minute political liability – allegations
by his ex-wife that he had asked her for an open marriage –
into an asset when he attacked the media for running the story.
“NOM congratulates Newt Gingrich on
his impressive come-from-behind victory in South Carolina,” said
NOM President Brian Brown. “We have had three different victors in
state contests thus far – Rick Santorum in Iowa, Mitt Romney in New
Hampshire and now Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. What all these
states have in common is that they have picked candidates who have
signed NOM's Marriage Pledge. They are all winners and NOM supports
each of them.”
Texas Rep. Ron Paul is the only
candidate remaining in the race who refused to sign the group's
anti-gay marriage pledge.
Candidates who sign NOM's 5-point
pledge promise to support a federal constitutional amendment banning
gay marriage, defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court,
appoint judges and an attorney general who will “respect the
original meaning of the Constitution,” appoint a presidential
commission to investigate the “harassment of traditional marriage
supporters,” and back legislation that would allow a ballot
question on the issue for voters of the District of Columbia.
NOM called Paul wrong on marriage for
deciding not to sign the document and launched an ad attacking him on
the issue. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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“Paul is the only remaining
Republican presidential candidate not to have signed the pledge, and
he is not considered to have any realistic chance of becoming the
Republican nominee,” the group said in a statement.
“It is now clear that the Republican
Party will nominate a candidate who is strongly committed to
preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Brown
added. “We have succeeded in making the preservation of marriage a
key issue in this race, and we will continue to do so throughout the
primary season, and into the general election against President
Obama.”