JOHNSTON, Iowa — Whether or not Rick Santorum wins the caucuses that he currently leads by a handful of votes, his success here can be traced to his personal strategy of holding hundreds of events in the state’s 99 counties to interact with voters. How personal?
“I have Rick Santorum’s cell phone number, and I text him regularly and he texts me back,” Rick Cowman, a Santorum supporter who I spoke with just after the Pennsylvania Senator addressed the crowd at the Stoney Creek Inn. “That’s impressive.”
Recommended Stories
Cowman, who served as a precinct captain for Santorum in Marion County and came to Tuesday night’s rally with his wife and one of his daughters, said he first met Santroum at a home school conference in Des Moines in June and then later talked with him at length at a small community event with 30 people.
“I walked away and realized I was talking to a person running for president and thought I was talking to my neighbor,” he said. “I was very impressed by the way he carried himself, sharing his heart with me.”
Cowman said he wasn’t surprised by how well Santorum performed in Iowa, given all the time he spent in the state connecting with voters on an individual level.
“The fact that he tied the guy the pundits said is a shoe-in is huge,” he said. “They didn’t give Rick the time of day. They gave him two minutes to talk in the debates…Now, finally everybody is paying attention.”
