Rick Santorum said on Sunday he believes the White House is “very concerned” about President Trump’s base showing up for the midterm elections in November.
“They look at the election results in my home state of Pennsylvania … and the fact is that voter turnout in a lot of Trump areas has been very low among Republicans,” the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said during a panel on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning.
The comment was predicated on the question of whether Trump’s prior success of using “culture wars” to his advantage would be effective for the midterms, where Republican control of Congress is in jeopardy.
Santorum, who ran a brief campaign in the 2016 presidential election and later endorsed Trump, blamed Republicans who aren’t in lock step with the president for a lack of enthusiasm. He also stressed the importance of the GOP securing more policy victories, including in healthcare, to shore up support because pinning their hopes on the president’s appeal alone would be a tough sell.
“They need to show something more than just having pass the tax cut to energize the base. If they don’t then they are left saying this is about Donald Trump. I’m not sure that’s enough,” Santorum said.
