Who is he?
Santorum is from Winchester, Va. And was raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. He attended Pennsylvania State University for his undergraduate studies in political science and the University of Pittsburgh for his MBA in the same field.
In 1990, at the age of 32, he was elected to represent the 18th district of Penn., the same district where he grew up. In 1994, Santorum ran for one of the Pennsylvania Senate seats and beat the Democratic incumbent. He regained election in 2000 and gained chairmanship of the Senate Republican Conference. In 2006, however, after a heated race, he lost his seat to Bob Casey (D), who was the state’s Treasurer at the time.
Why is he running?
Santorum is a conservative Roman Catholic. He has made headlines for his strong pro-life stances on abortion and end-of-life issues, including the infamous Terri Schiavo case in Florida.
Santorum also attempted to attach to President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” bill legislation that would have required the teaching of intelligent design theory alternative to Darwinian evolution.
Why are others opposed?
Because of his strictly conservative views on issues like gay-marriage and abortion, he is strongly opposed to those in favor of gay rights and pro-life groups.
Campaign Viability
Some of the biggest obstacles to the presidency for Santorum include the many controversies he has been involved in during his career, including a debacle that called in to question his residency in Pennsylvania and the abuse of tax-supported cyber schools in Pennsylvania where his Virginia-resident children were enrolled. Because of controversial statements made against gay marriage and homosexual relationships, gay rights activists took a cyber stand against the candidate, effectively fooling Google into thinking his name was actually a term for something else. To this day, the first result for a Google search of the word “santorum” is not something you would want to pop up on your screen at work or with your children in the room.
Santorum’s name is not widely recognized outside of his home state (except on Google, which could prove devastating to his campaign with voters searching for more information on the candidate). While he originally finished the Iowa caucuses just eight votes behind Mitt Romney, he has now been declared the Iowa winner. He struggled to gain footing in New Hampshire, often clashing with voters on the issue of gay marriage. He will face off with Newt Gingrich to win the hearts and votes of conservatives in South Carolina’s primary election this Saturday.
Santorum is from Winchester, Va. And was raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. He attended Pennsylvania State University for his undergraduate studies in political science and the University of Pittsburgh for his MBA in the same field.
In 1990, at the age of 32, he was elected to represent the 18th district of Penn., the same district where he grew up. In 1994, Santorum ran for one of the Pennsylvania Senate seats and beat the Democratic incumbent. He regained election in 2000 and gained chairmanship of the Senate Republican Conference. In 2006, however, after a heated race, he lost his seat to Bob Casey (D), who was the state’s Treasurer at the time.
Why is he running?
Santorum is a conservative Roman Catholic. He has made headlines for his strong pro-life stances on abortion and end-of-life issues, including the infamous Terri Schiavo case in Florida.
Santorum also attempted to attach to President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” bill legislation that would have required the teaching of intelligent design theory alternative to Darwinian evolution.
Why are others opposed?
Because of his strictly conservative views on issues like gay-marriage and abortion, he is strongly opposed to those in favor of gay rights and pro-life groups.
Campaign Viability
Some of the biggest obstacles to the presidency for Santorum include the many controversies he has been involved in during his career, including a debacle that called in to question his residency in Pennsylvania and the abuse of tax-supported cyber schools in Pennsylvania where his Virginia-resident children were enrolled. Because of controversial statements made against gay marriage and homosexual relationships, gay rights activists took a cyber stand against the candidate, effectively fooling Google into thinking his name was actually a term for something else. To this day, the first result for a Google search of the word “santorum” is not something you would want to pop up on your screen at work or with your children in the room.
Santorum’s name is not widely recognized outside of his home state (except on Google, which could prove devastating to his campaign with voters searching for more information on the candidate). While he originally finished the Iowa caucuses just eight votes behind Mitt Romney, he has now been declared the Iowa winner. He struggled to gain footing in New Hampshire, often clashing with voters on the issue of gay marriage. He will face off with Newt Gingrich to win the hearts and votes of conservatives in South Carolina’s primary election this Saturday.
This graph from TPM Polltracker shows Santorum's favorability