Former Ambassador David Wilkins Endorses Romney

Just hours after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he withdraw as a candidate for the GOP nomination as president, one of his biggest supporters in the Upstate announced that he would support his rival, Mitt Romney.

Perry, in his announcement, threw support to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

But a campaign announcement this evening confirmed that former United States Ambassador to Canada and former Speaker of the House David Wilkins of Greenville would support Mitt Romney for president.

Wilkins endorsed Perry in August in front of voters at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville in August. During the introduction, Wilkins said, "Gov. (Rick) Perry is one of us. He is someone we can relate to, he is someone we can connect with, he is someone we can believe in."

His comments were almost parallelled in his statement released by the Romney campaign, "Americans want a candidate they can believe in; one who can defeat President (Barack) Obama and get our country back to work.

"Mitt Romney is that man. Governor Romney would never turn his back on 20,000 new jobs and our energy security as the President has done with the Keystone XL pipeline project. Mitt Romney has a real plan for restoring our economy and our place in the world as freedom's best friend and most steadfast defender."