It's his time.
"Santorum joins Republican 2016 presidential race" by Trip Gabriel New York Times May 28, 2015
CABOT, Pa. — Rick Santorum, who was the runner-up in the Republican primary race four years ago but has never been considered his party’s heir apparent, announced his second presidential bid Wednesday.
A former senator from Pennsylvania, who with his wife home-schooled several of their seven children, Santorum appeals primarily to social conservatives. He is facing heavy competition for those voters this year from rivals like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Santorum, 57, was the surprise winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012, thanks to evangelical Christian voters, and he went on to win 10 other states, dragging out Mitt Romney’s quest for the nomination.
I'd forgotten that. He's in really good position then, both he and Huck (who is leading in the polls).
This time he hopes to catch a second wave with a strategy of broadening his message beyond social issues to an economic populism he calls “blue-collar conservatism.”
Good move!
At times, Santorum’s unwillingness to emphasize his opposition to abortion or same-sex marriage, and instead choosing to criticize his party for being obsessed with cutting taxes for the rich, has made him seem the boldest candidate in the race.
Still, he has struggled to catch on.
What?
His star has fallen so far that he is in danger of not making the 10-candidate cutoff for the first Republican debate Aug. 6, which will be determined by standings in national polls.
He's a regular Denny Hastert, huh?
In 2012, Santorum embodied many conservatives’ dissatisfaction with Romney. But Santorum’s anointment in that role was almost by default, after other conservative alternatives proved to have fatal flaws.
Until just days before the Iowa caucuses, Santorum was an underfinanced outsider, but his dogged campaigning in all 99 of the state’s counties, often before tiny crowds, paid off.
And he do it again, dammit (oh, sorry).
His 34-vote margin of victory was not officially announced until two weeks after the caucuses, something that Santorum resents to this day for robbing him of momentum in later contests.
This time around, many of his senior aides and supporters have gone to other candidates.
One reason for Santorum’s struggle this year is that in a field shaping up to include a dozen or more Republican contenders, including sitting governors and senators, Santorum — who has not held office since 2007 — looks to many voters like someone who already had his shot.
It is a reversal from the days when Republicans deferred to the “next in line” candidate, often from the party’s establishment. The grass-roots voters — evangelicals, Tea Party members, libertarians — that Santorum benefited from four years ago pay him little deference today.
That is who were are going to get.
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