Rick Santorum will announce on Wednesday afternoon that he is the latest Republican to join the 2016 race for president.
The Guardian confirmed with a source familiar with the former Pennsylvania senator’s thinking that Santorum will launch his second bid for the White House at a rally at Penn United Technologies, a factory a few miles from the western Pennsylvania town where he grew up.
The former two-term senator finished second to Mitt Romney in the 2012 GOP primary and won 11 states. An ardent social conservative, Santorum was considered an afterthought for much of the Republican primary before he surged in the run-up to the crucial Iowa caucuses. Although Romney was initially judged to have won Iowa, a recount eventually showed that Santorum won by a hair.
Santorum hopes to triumph in the crowded GOP field in 2016 by touting his message of “blue-collar conservatism”. However, he faces new obstacles in his second run for the White House. Unlike in 2012, there are a number of strong contenders like Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee who appeal the Republican Party’s evangelical base in the 2016 race.
Furthermore, Santorum faces the possibility of being excluded from televised debates as he is just at the national polling threshold necessary to participate.
Prior to his White House bid, Santorum served two terms in the House of Representatives and two terms in the Senate representing his home state of Pennsylvania. The former senator lost his 2006 bid for re-election to Democrat Bob Casey by a margin of 59%-41%.
