Former Senator Rick Santorum formally launched his presidential bid in Pennsylvania this afternoon.
Making his announcement to a sizable crowd of enthusiastic supporters, Santorum made a tall order. “I’ll offer a bold vision for America, the one that’s clear and conservative, that has plans for reform and that has a proven track record.”
His multi-faceted platform included “scrapping the corrupt federal tax code and the IRS that goes with it.” In exchange for the current tax code, Santorum proposed implementing a flat tax. Reviving industry, shrinking government, reducing spending, and revoking every executive order and regulation that “cost American jobs” were also priorities outlined by Pennsylvania’s former Senator.
“From day one, we will work to bring back America and put Americans back to work,” Santorum promised. In a populist appeal, Santorum lumped Hillary Clinton and Big Business into one category claiming, “their priority is profits and power, my priority is you, the American worker.”
“It’s time we have a president who sees the struggle of working families in America not as an opportunity to divide us along race or class, but as a chance to unite us,” Santorum said, referring to American families as “the first economy.”
While Santorum will be one of many in a tightly packed Republican primary, he has one presidential run under his belt. Managing to come in second place in the 2012 primary and winning a total of eleven states, does he have what it takes to draw that kind of attention in the 2016 field?
Real Clear Politics has Santorum polling 10th in the prospective GOP primary field. Unlike some of those polling ahead of him, Santorum has the advantage of presidential campaign experience and name recognition. Republican voters have seen him on the national stage, know he’s ardently pro-life, watched the former Senator debate the likes of Gingrich and Ron Paul, and either love or hate his preferred uniform, the sweater vest.
Even though Santorum hasn’t held an elected office in several years, he brings with him a deep resume of Republican experience. Fox News recounts:
Santorum claims his experience could pay dividends the second time around. Most of the GOP’s recent presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and President Ronald Reagan among them, needed more than one campaign to find success in the nomination race.”This is a long process,” Santorum told reporters recently. “One of the things that I feel very comfortable with — I’ve been through this process before.” He said it’s a “completely wide open race.”Santorum served in the Senate from 1995 to 2007. He began his political career in 1990 as a long-shot candidate for a House seat. In that race, he knocked seven-term Democratic incumbent Doug Walgren out of office. Santorum would go on to become part of the “Gang of Seven” in Congress made up of a new breed of GOP lawmakers. The group, which included now-House Speaker John Boehner, made headlines by going after House Democrats as well as focusing on the House banking scandal.Santorum won election to the U.S. Senate in 1994. He was 36. Six years later, he won re-election to a second term and would go on to chair the Senate Republican Conference — the third highest-ranking party leadership position in the Senate.
Santorum is the first “Rick” to enter the race. Former Governor of Texas Rick Perry is scheduled to announce his candidacy June 4.
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