In his 2016 presidential announcement, Rick Santorum said more about the American worker and less about social issues. For the social conservatives who backed him in 2012, is this cause for concern?
“Social conservatives don’t vote only on social conservative values,” Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told the Washington Examiner. “They obviously want to be convinced that a candidate believes strongly in their values. But that’s not all they care about, of course.”
Santorum hasn’t changed any of his positions, but it is a different emphasis. During the 2012 Republican National Convention, the former Pennsylvania senator gave a soaring speech about the economic opportunities the United States provided to his father when he came to this country. Throughout the speech he waxes about “living the American dream” and what Americans need to do to become less dependent on government.
“Rick understands that there are pockets of voter out there who are social conservatives or at least not turned off by social conservatives who can speak on their bread and butter issues which might jobs and the economy,” Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and longtime Republican politician, told the Examiner. “I think he has good shot I think he would be foolhardy not to go after these voters.”
Blackwell believes that Santorum’s new push will help him appeal to the Reagan Democrats who are looking for someone to revive the economy.
“A candidate doesn’t have to talk about only social conservative issues but when they do there has to be absolute resolve to enforce them,” Head said. “And based on this I think Santorum will do very well. I think he’ll tweak his approach but I don’t think anyone else will change.”
In April, it was the rage to ask GOP presidential contenders if they would attend a gay wedding. While many Republicans gave wishy-washy answers, Santorum stood out with a strong “no I would not.”
The 2016 Republican presidential field is larger and more varied than when Santorum won the Iowa caucuses last time around. There are also more candidates appealing to social conservatives, including Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and even Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. Santorum is emphasizing economic populism to differentiate himself from his rivals.
“On the issues of life, marriage and religious liberty there is no candidate any stronger than Rick on those issues.” Blackwell said. “Rick doesn’t have to prove himself on those issues, he is battle tested on those issues. So I don’t think that expanding to other issues is his challenge.”
