EASLEY, S.C. (AP) — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday he’s still the best conservative alternative to Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, brushing aside a report saying that a vote canvass in Iowa shows Rick Santorum ended up edging Romney in the state’s GOP caucuses.

“If you look at your own poll, I’m clearly now within five points of beating Romney” in South Carolina,” Gingrich told NBC’s “Today” show in an early morning interview from South Carolina.