McMorris Rodgers backs Romney, heads up state campaign

While the race for the Republican nomination for president is far from settled, Eastern Washington's U.S. House Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has already chosen her candidate: Mitt Romney.

The presidential campaign for the former Massachussets governor announced McMorris Rodgers's endorsement in a press release on Wednesday.

"Mitt Romney actually knows how the economy works — he spent 25 years in the private sector — and knows how jobs are created," McMorris Rodgers, also a Republican, says in the press release.

McMorris Rodgers, who is the fifth-highest-ranking Republican in the House, will also chair Romney's Washington election committee, according to the press release.

Romney currently trails former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in a Gallup poll of Republican contenders.