WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Newt Gingrich acknowledged on Sunday that his campaign was in fairly massive debt. But the former House Speaker continued to stress that he would remain in the race for purposes of driving the party, and its platform, in certain ideological directions.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Gingrich was asked about a report that his campaign had spent roughly $4.5 million more than it had raised.
"I think slightly less than that," he replied, declining to offer a more specific number. "We owe much more than we wanted to. Florida got to be a real brawl. And I think, unfortunately, our guys tried to match Romney and it turned out we didn't have anything like his capacity to raise money."
Gingrich admitted that he had to dip into his personal finances to help fund his campaign though he insisted that he had not spent much of his own money. He also acknowledged that he was campaigning heavily in Delaware because it was relatively inexpensive to do so.
"We are operating on a shoestring," he said.
Acknowledging that Romney would likely end up as the nominee, Gingrich pledged to help him once he reached the necessary number of delegates. In what capacity he would serve is unclear. The former Speaker said he would talk to RNC officials about how best to serve the party, post-primary. He added that there would be no lingering animus between him and the former Massachusetts Governor, despite the heated campaigning between the two.
"I hit him as hard as I could," said Gingrich. "He hit me as hard as he could. Turned out he had more things to hit with than I did."