Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Newt may slim down for Super Tuesday. When MSNBC asked him what he is giving up for Lent, the GOP hopeful replied, "I am going to give up desserts... all desserts."
His wife, Callista, who recently made her first solo campaign appearance, is making a sacrifice that may raise eyebrows in the midst of a male-dominated firestorm over women's health issues.
"I am giving up my opinion," she said. She added that she won't be cutting back on McDonald’s.
Callista is a lifelong Catholic and Newt, previously Southern Baptist, converted to Catholicism in 2009. His faith has been central to his campaign, and the contraception controversy led him to accuse the Obama administration of waging a "war against religion."
At the debate Wednesday night in Arizona, Newt called Obama an "extremist" who supported "infanticide."
"You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide," he said. "If we're going to debate about who is the extremist on this issues, it is President Obama, who, as a state senator, voted to protect doctors who killed babies."