Former Senator Rick Santorum added his name yesterday to the growing list of official GOP presidential candidates. He aims for a come-from-behind win in Iowa, just as he did in 2012.
As expected, Santorum presses hard in his appeal to Iowans as the standard-bearer. He demonstrates in other states as the one candidate who managed, on a shoe-string budget, to battle Mitt Romeny deep into the primary cycle
During that fight Santorum attended 385 events in 99 counties ahead of the Iowa Caucuses, a strategy that propelled him from a meager fourth place finish in the straw poll only months before he edged out Mitt Romney by a few votes.
The campaign features a repackaged and upgraded version of his 2012 message. This time around, the message focuses on both the plight of blue collar workers and the middle class. He distances himself from the pack by endorsing a minimum wage increase.
The challenge for Santorum, however, the 2016 race features what some call the ‘field of dreams.’ It is arguably the largest and most qualified slate of GOP contenders in a generation.
That challenge is one, some analyst argue, that will prove Santorum’s undoing. His exclusive appeal to evangelical Christians in 2012, for instance, is already being captured in part by Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal.
With even single digits pulled from his base by those and perhaps other candidates, political prognosticators question the likelihood of Santorum cobbling together a winning coalition despite little money.
