WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum said he’ll make his 2016 presidential plans known on May 27 in his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania.
“On that date, we’re going to make an announcement on our plans,” he said on Fox News.
Santorum wouldn’t confirm that he plans to officially announce his bid that day, but spoke like a prospective candidate, telling Fox News host Greta Van Susteren he’s looking for a “facility there to talk about what it was like growing up there and where America needs to go in the future.”
The former Pennsylvania senator became the conservative alternative to eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney last cycle after outlasting the rest of the far-right candidates in the field. He first emerged as a viable conservative alternative in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, when he just barely beat Romney — by 34 votes.
This time around, he’s polling at the back of the pack, routinely coming in the bottom three of the ever-expanding GOP presidential primary field.
Santorum said Fox that he’s confident he’ll have the same level of support in Iowa, and this time around, plans “to win by more than 34 votes and hopefully get a good count” there.
“It was a great campaign last time, we were clearly the underdog, and we’re starting out looking at this race and we’d be in the same position so we’re very comfortable there,” he said.
This time around, Santorum suggested his campaign would focus on “the importance of making us as globally competitive in manufacturing” and “what we can do to help strengthen that family structure,” which he said was key to re-establishing economic opportunity for Americans.
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