Loading...
In a surprise swoop, Rick Santorum has beat out GOP front-runner Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in nomination races in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, last Tuesday. With a much smaller budget than Romney, whose strategy has included pummeling Newt Gingrich with negative ads, he nevertheless gained a great boost from his unexpected triumph.
“People continue to contribute and help with us out and really gave us the resources so we could compete in Missouri, in Colorado, and Minnesota,” said Santorum. “And, you know, we just feel very, very blessed to have the opportunity to get out there and get our message across and the people of those three states really responded, and I just want to thank them all.”
He added, “[Missouri] is a big state, an important state and state Republicans have to have. And you have to have enthusiasm in Republican ranks, 55 percent of the vote. Nobody in this primary season has cracked 50 percent, and we got 55 percent to beat Mitt Romney, the next highest person, by 30 points, beat him by almost 30 points again in Minnesota.”
Santorum has won one more State than Romney, with a total of four so far. The day after his victory he drew $1 million in donations through the internet, which, while not comparable to Romney’s ample funding, is a boost to his own modest campaign.
Romney came in second in Colorado and Missouri, and followed in third behind Ron Paul in Minnesota. Colorado and Minnesota are vital swing states; Missouri is the only one that voted Republican in 2008. Though Santorum was expected to win Missouri and Minnesota, the margin of his victories shocked the party. And his triumph over Colorado is an embarrassment to Romney, who had spent much of his time and money there.
“I don’t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney,” Santorum said in a speech. “I stand here to be the conservative to Barack Obama.” Such partisan etiquette does not gloss over the real advantages he might bring against Obama. For instance, the Obama administration has tangled with the Catholic Church over whether Catholic Schools and hospitals must provide contraception in their health plans. Santorum, on the other hand, is Catholic.
Get JD Journal in Your Mail
Subscribe to our FREE daily news alerts and get the latest updates on the most happening events in the legal, business, and celebrity world. You also get your daily dose of humor and entertainment!!
For what funds Santorum continues to raise, they will be focused on preparing for March 6th, “Super Tuesday” when 10 states will vote. Santorum plans to have both the funding and the infrastructure to give Romney a run for his money:
“I came to Dallas for a reason,” Said Santorum. “There are a lot of great folks, conservative folks down here who have resources. And we’ve had a very, very good day here in Texas. We’re going to have a lot more good days in Texas and other places around this country. On the Internet just alone today we did almost a million dollars in the last 24 hours. I mean, this has been a huge day for us on the Internet and Direct mail. I mean, this has been a huge day and we believe it’s going to continue. This is something that is real out there. And we’re going to have the infrastructure. We’re going to have the resources. This race is going a long, long time.”
