Rep. Todd Akin office
Facing pressure from Republican heavyweights in Washington to abandon his Missouri Senate bid, Rep. Todd Akin is huddling with top conservative activists in Tampa to assess whether to move forward with his embattled candidacy.
Akin spent Wednesday night and Thursday in a series of private meetings at the two-day summit of the Council For National Policy (CNP), a secretive group of conservative leaders who are meeting in Florida before next week's Republican National Convention.
The congressman was scheduled to attend the conference long before he suggested that "legitimate rape" might not cause a woman to become pregnant, comments that have roiled the Republican Party and shifted the focus of the presidential race away from the economy and toward the divisive social issue of abortion - just days before the GOP officially nominates Mitt Romney as its standard-bearer.
On Thursday, the Capitol Police said "an active, open investigation" was under way regarding a reported threat against Akin. The investigation included the FBI, the Capitol Police spokeswoman said.
Multiple sources at the CNP conference told CNN that Akin is being encouraged by leading figures in the conservative movement to remain in the Senate race even as he faces pressure from Republican establishment.
Still, several of the activists and conservative thought leaders here acknowledged the long odds he faces.
One person attending the summit said many were "spooked" by a poll out Thursday that showed Akin trailing Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill by 10 points, an unthinkable scenario just one week ago.
Asked if Akin is using the meetings to re-evaluate his decision to stay in the Missouri race, a source close to the congressman told CNN that he is "keeping an open ear to those people who are pushing him or questioning him on viability."
But the source stressed that Akin is "getting a ton of support" from conservatives at the conference.
"He is down there to get input from a group of people who care about the things he cares about," the Akin source told CNN.
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