Christian leaders on Saturday endorsed Rick Santorum for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination. The group of 150 conservatives agreed to support the former Pennsylvania senator. They had not been expected to reach agreement on one candidate since evangelical support was splintered among Santorum, former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council and spokesman for the group, said "What I did not think was possible appears to be possible." Perkins described a "vigorous and passionate" discussion about who would make the best president and said eventually people made concessions to their views in order to coalesce around one candidate. In the 2008 election, about 60 percent of the voters in South Carolina described themselves as evangelical Christians. Santorum is a Catholic and father of seven who strongly opposes abortion and gay rights. Perkins said the group debated and prayed over who to pick. Conservatives are desperate to find a viable alternative to Romney, who won the first two nomination contests in Iowa and New Hampshire and now leads the polls in South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on January 21. Perkins said all factors were taken into account at the Texas meeting and said that Romney's Mormon religion "wasn't even discussed."
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