Rick Santorum To Enter Race Today
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum will officially announce his campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination this afternoon. Santorum won the 2012 Iowa Caucuses and was the runner-up to Mitt Romney. The Washington Times provides more information on Santorum's 2016 campaign announcement:
Rick Santorum expected to join crowded GOP 2016 field
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is expected Wednesday to dive into the 2016 GOP presidential race, where he will hope to prove that his second-place finish from four years ago was more than a flash in the pan.
GOP observers, though, say Mr. Santorum will face a larger, tougher field of Republicans, with more competition for the social conservatives who helped power his success in 2012.
“There are a lot of good candidates this go-around, and a lot of people in Iowa and across the country will want to test-drive candidates with that new car smell,” said Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Iowa-based Family Leader, a Christian Conservative group.
The size of the field, and the fact that many of them share Santorum's strong social conservative beliefs, could make it more difficult for him to stand out from the field the way he did in 2012. The Times story notes:
In his fundraising email, Mr. Santorum said he will need to gain instant traction or else be left behind in the dash for money. He’ll also need to show movement in the polls in order to gain a place on stage in the debates, which are likely to use size of support as a threshold.
He is running near the back of the pack in early polls, including a recent Quinnipiac University survey of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers that found several of his likely rivals are outperforming him among born-again and evangelical Christians — including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Alex Roarty over at National Journal explains Santorum's strategy to offset any potential losses of socially-conservative voters to other candidates:
...Santorum wants to rebrand himself not as a culture warrior but as a spokesman for the working class. He's built a platform that includes plans to reduce legal immigration while, rhetorically, accusing both parties of leaving blue-collar workers behind. Santorum's contention is that, as a native of hardscrabble Western Pennsylvania, he can bring those voters back into the Republican Party.
How successful he is could determine whether he's able to match, or even come close, to his second-place result of last primary.
Santorum was able to emerge from the back of the pack in 2012, so it's not impossible to imagine him replicating that feat again to become at least a serious contender for the nomination, especially if his economic agenda finds support among Republicans who aren't enamored of the general free-market bent of the rest of the field.