Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich indicated he would be suspending his campaign this week after former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won another five states in the primary contest on Tuesday.

Gingrich continued to give speeches in North Carolina this week as a “citizen,” NBC reported.

"The campaign will go bye-bye, but I'll be a citizen," Gingrich said. "I've been an active citizen since I was 15."

Gingrich confirmed he would suspend his campaign at a news conference in the “middle of next week,” The Fayetteville Observer reported on Friday.

Gingrich appeared in Rosemont, IL about a month ago. Romney and Santorum also campaigned in Illinois last month. We thought it would be a good time to look back at their visits.

Earlier: Attorney said discrimination complaint was “very large part” of cop’s firing.

The former house speaker addressed a group of supporters at the Stephens Convention Center on March 14, following primary losses to Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in Mississippi and Alabama.

Gingrich told the crowd in Rosemont that by modernizing the anti-fraud systems for Medicaid and Medicare in a similar way to American Express credit cards, the federal government would save billions of dollars.

“The current estimate for the amount we would save if you had a modern anti-fraud system in Medicaid and Medicare is between $16 and $110 billion dollars,” Gingrich said. “In a 10-year period that would be $600 billion to a trillion dollars in savings.”

He went on to explain how modernizing government applies to Springfield as well.

"...how do you modernize the government of the state of Illinois so that it’s not the most expensive pension system in the country, and it’s not killing jobs in Illinois?" Gingrich said. "This problem is true across all of our systems; it’s not just Washington. We really have to have a dramatic modernization of what we’re doing if we’re going to compete in the world."

Romney decried the falling standards of education in Vernon Hills on March 18.

“How can the country that invented public education have fallen so low,” he asked? He mentioned countries like Singapore and Finland have better public education today.

Romney also said teachers should be paid more.

“We should pay our beginning teachers more,” Romney said. “The national unions are too interested in benefits for the older teachers.” He would also do what he could to give parents options like charter schools.

Rick Santorum spoke to a crowd at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights on March 16. Two men who kissed one another were kicked out of the rally after interrupting the presidential candidate’s speech.

Santorum also spoke to students at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights on March 16. Here are some photos from that event.

Find Patch on Facebook; click like.

Stay connected: Receive an email from Des Plaines Patch with headlines in the morning for free.