CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is hinging his troubled and indebted campaign on a win in Delaware tonight, telling reporters following him in North Carolina that he "will have something to say this evening once we see some results from today."

Gingrich hit the presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, for giving a speech titled, "A Better America Begins Tonight," which a senior Romney adviser said will show Romney in a "new light." The senior adviser added that the general election campaign has begun.

"I think it's a very substantial mistake for Gov. Romney to be pretending these primaries aren't occurring and for him to be having, quote, 'a general election' speech tonight in New Hampshire," Gingrich said. "He's the frontrunner but he's not the nominee and I think it's a little insulting to the people of these states."

Gingrich said the people in future primary states "deserve some respect."

"I think it's a little bit presumptuous. There's a big difference between being the frontrunner and being inevitable and I think he is mistaking the two," Gingrich said.

Gingrich would not take any questions at his campaign stop in Charlotte, but said he would answer the looming questions about the state of his campaign at his election watch party tonight in Concord, N.C.