State Rep. Kurt Bills, who won the Republican Party's endorsement for U.S. Senate, switched his presidential support Thursday from Ron Paul to Mitt Romney.
Bills, a first-term House member who is facing Democratic incumbent U.S.Sen. Amy Klobuchar, was elected to the Republican National Convention as delegate for Ron Paul. Paul is the Texas congressman who challenged Romney for the Republican nomination, and who has considerable support among the Minnesota delegation.
Bills said in a statement that Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, "alone have the ability to beat Barack Obama in November and help America rediscover its conservative principles."
He was joined at the pro-Romney news conference by two former rivals for his party's nomination, Pete Hegseth and Dan Severson.
Bills, facing a tough campaign, said he is confident both for Romney's performance in Minnesota and for his own race. "We're going to have a great fall," he said. He said the intra-party battle among Paul and Romney supporters has been a productive discussion, leading the GOP back to its conservative roots.
