Gingrich rises sharply in Republican race in U.S.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rose rapidly in the Republican presidential nomination race, on track to become the new "non-Romney" candidate to replace declining Herman Cain, a new national poll showed Monday. Twenty-two percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents support Gingrich to be their party nominee, a 14- point surge since October, according to the CNN/ORC International Poll. He is just two points lower than that of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, at 24 percent. In contrast, Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, began to see the impact of the recent sexual harassment allegations on his polling numbers. Fourteen percent of those surveyed say they back Cain as party nominee, down 11 points from last month. "Cain is struggling with the charges of sexual harassment, and while most Republicans tend to dismiss those charges, roughly four in 10 Republicans think this is a serious matter and tend to believe the women who made those charges," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who suffered an embarrassing "oops" moment at a Republican primary debate last week when he forgot a federal agency he would cut if elected president, is at 12 percent in the survey. House Representative Ron Paul of Texas is at 8 percent, with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at 6 percent, former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania each at 3 percent. The survey also demonstrated Romney's strength in hypothetical matchup with President Barack Obama. Among all registered voters, he leads Obama 51 percent to 47 percent. Obama maintains advantage over all other Republican hopefuls, including an 8-point lead over Gingrich, a 10-point lead over Cain, and a 7-point lead over Perry.