AMHERST, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum left Iowa last week with a near victory over frontrunner Mitt Romney, but he left behind the large bloc of evangelical Christian voters that helped propel him to the top of the GOP field.
Santorum now faces a far more secular and perhaps more pragmatic electorate in New Hampshire.
He has tweaked his campaign pitch in hopes of connecting with voters here, but it’s harder to sustain his Iowa bounce in the state with the lowest rate of church attendance in the country, according to University of New Hampshire Survey Center Director Andrew Smith.
In the 2008 election, 60 percent of Iowa caucus-goers identified themselves as evangelicals, Smith said. In New Hampshire, that number was 23 percent.
Suffolk University polling over the last few days shows New Hampshire voters are more comfortable with Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who has more or less lead the GOP field for months, than they are with Santorum, who until last week was stuck in single-digit poll numbers.
Santorum is now tied for fourth place with Jon Huntsman, a former Utah governor who also has struggled in the polls. He’s far behind frontrunner Romney with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas in second and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in third.
“Republicans here are more economy focused,” Erick Taylor, a Moultonborough businessman told The Washington Examiner. “We’re more focused on jobs and business and that is where you are going to see the difference in the vote. What private sector experience is Santorum going to bring? Same with Newt Gingrich.”
Santorum on Saturday downplayed Romney’s business background and touted his achievements in the U.S. Senate, including his work on welfare reform and health care savings accounts.
But after focusing almost exclusively on Iowa until now, Santorum is scrambling in the two days left before the New Hampshire primary to introduce himself to voters.
“Santorum I like, but I’d like to see a little more of him,” said Diana Owen of Amherst, who met Santorum at a deli.
Added her husband, Givin, “It’s a different kind of ethos here. If you sell in Iowa, you may not sell in New Hampshire.”
