Published on May 27, 2015
Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) announced his intention to seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Republican Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, announced Wednesday that he is running for president.
"Working families don't need another president tied to big government or big money," he said in Cabot, Pa.. "And today is the day we're going to begin to fight back."
Santorum, who appeals to his party's social conservatives, won the Iowa caucuses in 2012 and, donning his trademark sweater vest, challenged eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney in several other states.
Santorum enters an already-crowded Republican field. According to Real Clear Politics' most-recent average of polls, he is in 10th place among his party's presidential hopefuls. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has a slight lead over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who are tied for second place. Most major polls show them all trailing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Rick Santorum Launches Second White House Bid
Republican former senator seeks to appeal as a champion of the working class
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum formally launched his second presidential campaign on Wednesday, attempting to bolster his reputation as a social-issues warrior with an appeal as a champion of the working class.
“I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president,” Mr. Santorum said at his launch event in Cabot, Pa.
He criticized big government, pledged to roll back regulations seen as hurting industry, and promised to offer a “clear and conservative” vision for America.
Mr. Santorum, who opened the speech with a piece of coal in one hand and an American flag in the other, hopes that reaching out to lower-income Americans—combined with his base of support among evangelical Christians and the party’s most conservative voters—will propel him ahead of better-funded candidates with establishment backing.
The strategy builds on his 2012 bid as a lunch-bucket conservative with a populist economic tone and a focus on social issues, an image that appealed to voters who felt eventual nominee Mitt Romney was insufficiently conservative.
“There’s a real opportunity for a candidate to come forward with a plan that’s going to provide upward mobility for everybody and unite the country in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last month.
Republicans, Mr. Santorum says, must improve their standing among the roughly 70% of Americans without a college degree—voters who feel the party has turned its back on them.
At a gathering of social conservatives in June 2014, he criticized fellow Republicans for heeding the interests of corporations and Wall Street at the expense of “average working Americans.”
Mr. Santorum has called for an overhaul of the tax code to encourage “working, saving and giving while discouraging overconsumption,” and for eliminating corporate income taxes for U.S. manufacturers.
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Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) announced his intention to seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Republican Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, announced Wednesday that he is running for president.
"Working families don't need another president tied to big government or big money," he said in Cabot, Pa.. "And today is the day we're going to begin to fight back."
Santorum, who appeals to his party's social conservatives, won the Iowa caucuses in 2012 and, donning his trademark sweater vest, challenged eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney in several other states.
Santorum enters an already-crowded Republican field. According to Real Clear Politics' most-recent average of polls, he is in 10th place among his party's presidential hopefuls. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has a slight lead over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who are tied for second place. Most major polls show them all trailing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Rick Santorum Launches Second White House Bid
Republican former senator seeks to appeal as a champion of the working class
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum formally launched his second presidential campaign on Wednesday, attempting to bolster his reputation as a social-issues warrior with an appeal as a champion of the working class.
“I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president,” Mr. Santorum said at his launch event in Cabot, Pa.
He criticized big government, pledged to roll back regulations seen as hurting industry, and promised to offer a “clear and conservative” vision for America.
Mr. Santorum, who opened the speech with a piece of coal in one hand and an American flag in the other, hopes that reaching out to lower-income Americans—combined with his base of support among evangelical Christians and the party’s most conservative voters—will propel him ahead of better-funded candidates with establishment backing.
The strategy builds on his 2012 bid as a lunch-bucket conservative with a populist economic tone and a focus on social issues, an image that appealed to voters who felt eventual nominee Mitt Romney was insufficiently conservative.
“There’s a real opportunity for a candidate to come forward with a plan that’s going to provide upward mobility for everybody and unite the country in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last month.
Republicans, Mr. Santorum says, must improve their standing among the roughly 70% of Americans without a college degree—voters who feel the party has turned its back on them.
At a gathering of social conservatives in June 2014, he criticized fellow Republicans for heeding the interests of corporations and Wall Street at the expense of “average working Americans.”
Mr. Santorum has called for an overhaul of the tax code to encourage “working, saving and giving while discouraging overconsumption,” and for eliminating corporate income taxes for U.S. manufacturers.
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