Akin Holds Press Conference to Reiterate Plans to Stay in Race

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- Missouri Congressman Todd Akin held a brief news conference Friday afternoon, in which he announced no plans to abandon his campaign.

"There may be some negotiations, but they don't include me," he said. "We are going to be here through the November election...to win."

Rep. Akin then took five questions from reporters before ending the news conference. The event was announced shortly after 2 p.m. It was his first public appearance in Missouri since making inflammatory remarks about rape and pregnancy.

He also sent donors a new fundraising appeal setting a goal of increasing his online contributions to $212,000 by the end of the day. 

"I can verify that the Capitol police are working with an outside law enforcement agency regarding threatening contact with our official office.  The office of Congressman Akin has received threats of rape of his official staff, family and the Congressman himself along with suggestions that individuals should die."

Pressure from the mainstream Republican Party has mounted on the Missouri representative to drop his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November because of his comments about "legitimate rape" and opposing abortion in rape cases.

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.