With the Florida primary five days away, the Republican presidential candidates continue to canvass Central Florida.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke in Lake County on Thursday morning at the Lakeside Inn in Mount Dora. Gingrich hosted a rally with tea party supporters, where he railed against the Republican and Democrat establishments and lashed out against President Barack Obama and rival candidate Mitt Romney.

VIDEO:Gingrich compares himself to Ronald Reagan

Gingrich said Romney has only been fueled in Florida by special interest money.

"The message we should give Mitt Romney is we aren't that stupid and you aren't that clever," Gingrich said.

Gingrich told the crowd that he was gaining momentum in Florida, with the help of tea party supporters. He focused his speech mostly on job creation, keeping new taxes from being enacted, debt reduction and changing the established Washington culture.

"I am running for president to represent you, not to represent the Washington lobbyist, not to represent Goldman Sachs, not to represent the people who have been ruining this country, and I need your help," Gingrich said.

Gingrich also compared himself multiple times to former president Ronald Reagan.

"In 1995 at the Goldwater Institute, Nancy Reagan said that Ronald Reagan’s torch had been passed to me as Speaker of the House and that I was carrying out the values he believed in," Gingrich said. "I will confess to you, I’m channeling Ronald Reagan in 1975-1976 and I’m channeling the way he used the Panama Canal and the fact he didn’t back down. He lost five straight primaries and he didn’t quit for a day."

Gingrich's appearance comes a day after he received a standing ovation on the Space Coast while presenting his plan to revamp NASA, create jobs and take people to the moon.

Local 6 talked to laid-off shuttle workers at the Brevard Workforce meeting, who said they are skeptical about Gingrich's speech.

Mike McCulley, retired shuttle pilot and former CEO of United Space Alliance sat down with Gingrich at a private roundtable yesterday, where Gingrich asked his opinion.

McCulley said it sounds exciting but he's skeptical.

“It's about the follow-up, not about the speech,” McCulley said. “We hear the speeches -- speeches are useless until someone does something with it.”

But McCulley said he believes Gingrich's moonbase is possible.

Romney will be in Brevard County on Friday for a rally in Cape Canaveral. Romney will visit Astrotech Space Operations Inc on Magellan Road at 3 p.m. for a public event.

"We’re getting ready for another debate tonight, I can’t wait," Romney said Thursday morning. "We'll probably talk a good deal about the State of the Union address and how badly mischaracterized he [Obama] has described our nation."

A lot is at stake for the debate, as whoever wins Florida's primary on Tuesday will have achieved a first in this election season --a second victory -- as each of the first three contests were won by different candidates.

Romney’s Florida campaigning efforts could be paying off, as a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Romney would be the only GOP candidate who could strongly challenge Obama with Florida voters.

A random telephone sampling of 1,518 registered voters between Jan. 19-23, showed Obama and Romney each favored by 45 percent in a November showdown. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

In the poll, Obama reached 50 percent support against Gingrich, who got 39 percent in a hypothetical match up. Obama also came on top of Santorum, 49 percent to 40 percent, and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, 47 percent to 39 percent.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has canceled plans to speak at Saturday’s Space Coast Tiger Bay luncheon at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Viera.