Rick Santorum (file photo)
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has ended his second campaign for the White House after a disappointing 11th place finish in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. Walt Rogers, a state legislator from Cedar Falls, was Santorum’s Iowa campaign chairman.
“Everywhere we went, everybody said: ‘We love Rick. We love what he stands for. We love him. We just don’t think he’s got a chance to win,'” Rogers said today, “so they discarded him right away.”
Rogers said, to him, Santorum was a candidate with the right kind of credentials for the time, but there was a “mentality” that Santorum’s “chance” had been in 2008, after he won the Iowa Caucuses.
“It was just a frustrating year,” Rogers said. “It seemed to be the year that people wanted something new.”
Santorum got fewer than 1800 votes on Caucus Night, about one percent of the total. Santorum finished last among the 11 candidates who campaigned in Iowa.
“Four people in our caucus voted for him: me, my wife and two other people, Rogers told Radio Iowa, with a laugh.
Rogers had a minute to speak at his precinct on Santorum’s behalf and he told a story about his first meeting with Santorum.
“All of us legislators get courted by everybody and Rick Santorum called me and, four years ago, came to my house, spent a couple of hours at my house with my family, my kids and he really won my kids over with authenticity,” Rogers said. “They said: ‘Dad, you worry about the politics but this guy is the real deal. We really like him. We would back you supporting him.’ And at that point we became friends and I’ve supported him ever since.”
Santorum has endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s bid for the White House. Two other GOP candidates have suspended their campaigns. Rand Paul ended his presidential campaign Wednesday morning. Mike Huckabee dropped out on Caucus Night. He won the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 with 34 percent of the vote. Four years later, Santorum got nearly one out of every four votes cast on Caucus Night.