Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania began a campaign for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for president of the United States in April 2011. He had been preparing for a run since shortly after the 2008 presidential election.
Santorum lagged in the polls for all of 2011 until he surged in the week before the Iowa caucuses, propelling him to a narrow victory over Mitt Romney in the first contest of the presidential primaries. Santorum's presidential hopes received another boost when he surprisingly swept all three votes held on February 7, 2012, in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado.Kim Geiger (February 7, 2012), "Rick Santorum sweeps Tuesday contests with Colorado win" The Los Angeles Times On April 10, 2012, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Santorum announced the suspension of his campaign.
Background and campaign announcement Santorum stopped short of a full-fledged candidacy before the beginning of 2011. Prior to that, he had indicated that he was merely considering running for president.
Santorum filed for an exploratory committee with Federal Election Commission, and announced the organization on the Fox News program On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren on April 13, 2011. He formally announced his run for the Republican presidential nomination on ABC's Good Morning America on Monday, June 6, 2011.
Campaign developments In an August 2011 interview with The Des Moines Register's editorial board, Santorum said "I'm the only person in this race by measuring the Gallup poll from March to July, everybody else who's even in the race or a prospective in the race their name identification increase except me. And so you just sort of wonder why is the national media not talking about me when they're talking about people like Jon Huntsman who are way below me in the national polls yet he gets press every single day. Nobody seems to want to pay any attention to me."
Santorum suffered from poor fund-raising and weak ground operations, and the viability of his campaign was in doubt during the Ames Poll. He finished fourth in the Iowa Straw Poll on August 13, 2011, with 9.8% of the vote. The finish was seen as a surprising and successful one; he finished just behind Tim Pawlenty, who had significantly more money. Santorum focused on an off-the-beaten-path strategy, going to dozens of small towns generally ignored by the other candidates. Although he was considered a "joke" candidate and panned as unelectable in some quarters, his solid consistency among fellow anti-abortion Catholics kept him in the race.
Santorum was one of the non-Mormon candidates to directly take on the accusations of Mormonism being a cult."2 Romney challengers dodge Christian question." AP, October 9, 2011.
Santorum has openly promoted natalist government policies as part of his campaign platform.
Comments about homosexuality
During the Fox News/Google-sponsored debate, which took place in Orlando, Florida on September 22, 2011, a gay soldier deployed in Iraq asked the candidates if they would take measures to "circumvent" the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", if elected president. Santorum, who answered the question, called the repeal of DADT "social experimentation" – and "tragic". "I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military," Santorum responded. "And the fact that they're making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to – and removing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military's job is to do one thing, and that is to defend our country." He added: "What we're doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. And that's tragic."
While campaigning in New Hampshire, Santorum engaged college students who asked about his position on gay marriage, suggesting that allowing gay marriage would lead to the legalization of polygamy and other forms of marriage. The back-and-forth resulted in him being booed at the conclusion of the event. At another event, Santorum suggested that children would be better off having a father in prison than being raised by lesbian parents.
Focus on Iowa Santorum focused much of his efforts on the early caucus state of Iowa. He established a solid ground operation in Iowa and visited the state the most of any of the candidates, having visited all 99 counties in the state at least once.
Santorum's candidacy was compared to that of Mike Huckabee, who surprisingly won Iowa despite similarly poor performance in the polls. Several Republican strategists in Iowa described Santorum as a "natural fit" for 2008 Huckabee supporters in Iowa. The Washington Times reported in November 2011 that conservatives had gone on a "carousel" of supporting different candidates against Mitt Romney, from Michele Bachmann to Rick Perry to Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich. As such, Santorum would be next on the "carousel".
In December 2011, when Gingrich achieved frontrunner status in the race, Santorum became increasingly critical of him and his speakership. Santorum said Gingrich's Contract with America was not practical and aside from welfare reform, it fell short of its goals. Santorum said Gingrich's Contract with America was overrated and took too much credit from the Gang of Six, of which he was a part, which exposed congressional banking corruption in 1994. Santorum also gained the confidence of several evangelical religious leaders and Sarah Palin for his "ideological consistency".
In December 2011, Santorum's poll numbers in Iowa remained low, but he attracted more attention as a dark horse candidate, and said Iowans were beginning to respond to his message. He described his campaign by saying, "I'm sort of the guy at the dance, when the girls walk in they sort of walk by, and they take a few turns at the dance hall with the guys that are a little better looking, a little flashier, a little more bling. But at the end of the evening, old steady Eddie's there. He's the guy you want to bring home to mom and dad."Santorum makes steady progress as Iowa conservatives search for candidate, but is it enough? He urged Iowans not to go along with the polls and the pundits, who have pitted the race as being between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, but to lead the national conversation by picking him, an underdog.
There were complaints about a statement made in Sioux City, Iowa, when Santorum said, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money". Santorum responded saying he did not say the word "black" but rather mumbled "blah".Santorum denies making black people remark retrieved January 26, 2012
Significant endorsements Santorum received endorsements from several major Iowa conservative leaders in the fall of 2011. Prominent social conservatives Bob Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley, both leaders of the Family Leader social conservative advocacy organization, praised Santorum's conservative record on social issues. Sioux City conservative talk radio host Sam Clovis cited Santorum's beliefs in "a constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense and unflagging devotion to life and traditional marriage."
Other endorsements included Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, Cornerstone Church pastor and evangelical leader Cary Gordon, and bestselling thriller novelist Brad Thor.
In November 2011, conservative commentator Glenn Beck said, "If there is one guy out there that is the next George Washington, the only guy that I could think of is Rick Santorum. I would ask that you would take a look at him."Glenn Beck: Rick Santorum "is the next George Washington"
Late surge in polls
After support for Newt Gingrich faded in Iowa, Santorum received a late surge in polling in the week prior to the caucuses; a CNN poll released December 28, 2011 showed Santorum jumping to third place with 16%, behind only Mitt Romney (25%) and Ron Paul (22%) and ahead of Newt Gingrich, who was first in the previous CNN poll. CNN said, "Most of Santorum's gains have come among likely caucus participants who are born-again or evangelical, and he now tops the list among that crucial voting bloc, with support from 22% of born-agains compared to 18% for Paul, 16% for Romney, and 14% for Gingrich."
Mike Huckabee said, "Rick Santorum, I believe, is being greatly underestimated in this race. I believe he will be the surprise candidate, not necessarily to win it, but to be in the top three or four when people don't expect him to be." On December 31, 2011, the Des Moines Register released a poll, conducted December 27–30, also placing Santorum in third place behind Romney and Paul. However, the paper noted, "the four-day results don't reflect just how quickly momentum is shifting in a race that has remained highly fluid for months. If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent." The Registers pollster said, "Momentum's name is Rick Santorum."
Victory in Iowa The Iowa caucuses were held on January 3, 2012, and the count that evening put Romney in first with just eight more votes than Santorum out of 125,000 cast (Romney received 30,015 votes to Santorum's 30,007). Though he finished in second, Santorum's finish was still seen as a stunning victory, which could give him some momentum going forward in an uphill battle of a race. Santorum's campaign reportedly raised over $1 million in less than 24 hours after his finish in the caucuses, and Santorum immediately surged in national polls, with three showing him competing for third place with Paul.
On January 20, 2012, Santorum was declared the official winner of the January 3 Iowa caucuses based on the certified results from 1,766 precincts (results from 8 precincts could not be found). Santorum (29,839 votes, 25%) had defeated Romney (29,805, 25%) by 34 votes.
New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida He finished fourth in the New Hampshire primary on January 10, 2012, ahead of Newt Gingrich.
On January 14, 2012, during the run-up to the South Carolina primary, Santorum won the endorsement of the Family Research Council, a group of 150 social conservative leaders who held an emergency meeting to determine the best social conservative candidate to coalesce around to beat Romney. Santorum finished third in South Carolina with 17%.
Newt Gingrich, the winner of South Carolina, called on Santorum along with Ron Paul to drop out of the race; Santorum rebuffed the idea, noting that he won Iowa and beat Gingrich in New Hampshire, and said, "We're not going anywhere. We are going to be in this race, we are going to stay in this race for the long haul. We are planning for the next states."Rick Santorum Says He’s Going Nowhere, in It for ‘Long Haul’
Santorum campaigned for the Florida primary but left the weekend before its primary to go home and prepare his income tax records to be released to the public. However, his three-year-old daughter Bella, who suffers from a rare genetic condition called Trisomy 18 that kills most sufferers before their first birthday, fell ill and came close to death in a bout with pneumonia.Santorum: Bella 'doing great' Santorum left the campaign trail for several days to be with her in the hospital.Rick Santorum says daughter Bella is out of hospital He said she made a miraculous turnaround.Rick Santorum Says Daughter Bella Has a ‘Miraculous Turnaround’ Santorum finished third in Florida's primary with 223,208 votes (13%).
February
On February 5, 2012, Rasmussen Reports' daily presidential tracking poll showed Santorum leading President Barack Obama 45%–44% in a potential general election matchup, the first time a Rasmussen poll showed him beating Obama.Daily Presidential Tracking Poll