Gingrich says he's staying in GOP race

LAS VEGAS — Defeated in the Nevada caucuses, Newt Gingrich brushed aside all talk of quitting the Republican presidential race and said he hopes a series of victories will enable him to catch up with front-runner Mitt Romney by the Texas primary in early April.

At a news conference in Las Vegas after results showed him and Ron Paul jockeying for second place, the former House speaker attacked Romney and President Barack Obama by turns. He said he and aides have spent much of the past four days retooling a campaign that twice has made him a leader in the polls, yet left him with only one victory in five states.

He described Romney as a Massachusetts moderate, and cast himself as a conservative, and said the differences between the two will become "wider and wider and clearer and clearer" over the next few weeks.

He needs to forge a breakthrough as the race turns to a string of states friendly to Romney, including Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday and Michigan, where Romney grew up, on Feb. 28.

Nevada was the second straight loss for Gingrich after his triumphant South Carolina upset.

And it was beset by glitches. Gingrich bungled a meeting with Nevada's governor then suffered through the indignity of having advisers tell reporters that the former House speaker would score the endorsement of Donald Trump, only to watch the unpredictable real estate tycoon back Mitt Romney.

Gingrich's campaign has always been a bit of a freewheeling affair, especially lined up against the regimented Romney effort. Gingrich is perpetually late, he frequently strays off message and his schedule sometimes seems improvised. His public appearances in Nevada have been surprisingly few, and he didn't even venture out to caucus sites on Saturday as voters cast ballots.

But in Nevada, organizational problems were laid bare in a fashion that raises questions about whether he's can compete in upcoming contests.

Gingrich aides say they have been using Nevada — where Romney was heavily favored and Ron Paul has sizable support — to reset the campaign after being clobbered in Florida.

One reason Gingrich held just five public events since arriving in Nevada is that he's been at closed-door fundraisers and meeting with donors at the Venetian Hotel, lining up the cash he'll need.