Baker noted that no matter who wins Florida, only 5 percent of the 2,288 national convention delegates will have been awarded.
"The campaign is shifting to a new phase where opportunities are not limited to a single state," Baker wrote.
Gingrich aides also said they had succeeded in effectively making the race a two-man contest, with Gingrich surviving as the conservative alternative to Romney. Rick Santorum, who had been splitting the conservative vote with Gingrich, is trailing badly in Florida.
Gingrich's prospects improve when the race sweeps back to the South on Super Tuesday. The Bible Belt is his sweet spot and his onetime home state of Georgia is in the mix with its 76 delegates.
"The math doesn't get better for us until much later in the game," Hammond acknowledged.
Gingrich will have to survive until then. He fought his way back into the GOP race last year after his top aides resigned en masse in the spring. He rallied again in South Carolina after a barrage of attack ads knocked him from front-runner status in Iowa.
Harris, in Nevada, says a repeat won't be impossible.
"The thing I love about Newt is that he's a fighter," he said. "Every time you think you've knocked him down he gets back up and knocks you in the face."
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