Let the race begin!

Last week, Mitt Romney’s biggest hurdle to securing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Rick Santorum, officially suspended his presidential campaign.

Following primary losses earlier this month and the tremendous hardship his family continues to endure with a daughter being hospitalized due to a rare genetic disorder, Santorum decided to end his run.

If you’d asked me last June, when Santorum joined the long list of Republican candidates vying for the nomination, whether I thought he had any chance of making it to this spring, let alone to the convention, I would have said, “No way.” But Santorum’s tenacity and endurance proved us wrong, and he should be commended for a hard-fought campaign. Despite losses in the Midwest and the threat of losing his home state of Pennsylvania, he managed to win 11 states primaries.

Santorum promised his supporters that he is not done fighting. Although he didn’t endorse any of the remaining candidates — Romney, Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul — sources are expecting him to publicly endorse Romney.

His exit from the race also marks the end of one of the most divisive primaries in Republican Party history. Santorum continually attacked Romney’s business record and his passing of a universal health care reform bill during his term as governor of Massachusetts.

Santorum had a large following in the extreme social conservative and evangelical Christian communities. Given Romney’s record as a moderate governor of a liberal state, this voting block will continue to be a difficult one for him to make inroads with.

If the presidential race is going to be competitive, Republicans must put their faith in Romney. If he wants to make this a competitive race, he can’t let himself become the candidate of the wealthy and focus his campaign on tax cuts for the rich. During these continually difficult economic times, he must be a proponent of the middle class and promise no new taxes and to seriously cut the deficit. To stimulate the economy, Romney must devise an economic strategy that cuts taxes across the board and closes corporate loopholes.