Rick Santorum announced his second presidential bid on Wednesday from his hometown in Pennsylvania, this time emphasizing his support for the working class more than the social issues that propelled him in 2012.
The two-term Pennsylvania senator said he would take on both big government and big business, challenging trade and immigration policies that he argued hurt American workers.
After reflecting upon his roots in Pennsylvania and thanking his family and supporters, Santorum held up a piece of coal and told the story of his grandfather, the coal miner from “fascist Italy” who came to America for the promise of freedom.
Continuing to focus on his family, Santorum spoke of how the depression hurt the people of Western Pennsylvania, and how government promised to help, but failed.
“What about those politicians? For all those years what did they do for these jobs and these communities in small town America?” he asked. “They provided no plan and no hope, and to that I say no longer.”
Santorum defended his conservative voting record. Step one of his plan was to get rid of the corrupt federal tax code and reform the IRS, touting “a simple fair flat tax” for all Americans. He said he would make America the leader in world manufacturing. His plan is to revoke every executive order and regulation that hurts workers.
The blue collar pitch may differentiate Santorum from other socially conservative candidates running in 2016. He wrote a 2014 book Blue Collar Conservatives which outlined a plan for Republicans to win working-class votes. He contended many of these voters failed to turn out in 2012, costing Mitt Romney the election.
Santorum was the dark horse candidate of 2012, going from polling 4 percent nationally to winning the Iowa caucuses and 10 other states, yet now he may struggle to qualify for the primary debates.
While on the campaign trail, Santorum will also play up his foreign policy credentials that he gained during his time in both the House and the Senate, boasting that he has the ability to go toe-to-toe with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
He has argued that governors are not ready to lead because they lack foreign policy experience and “they want to do in Washington what they did in their states, which is rearrange the deck chairs.”
Santorum boasted that he was recently featured in the Islamic State’s online magazine, saying that they know who he is and he will take them down if elected.
