Second try Rick (Perry or Santorum?, same thing...)

Rick Santorum Announces New Presidential Bid, and New Focus on Middle Class

By TRIP GABRIEL

Rick Santorum, the runner-up in the Republican nomination race four years ago, announced his second presidential bid on Wednesday, pledging to restore a middle class “hollowed out” by government policies.

A former United States senator from rural western Pennsylvania, he appealed primarily to social conservatives four years ago. But he has donned a new mantle of economic populism, one he calls “blue-collar conservatism.”

“Working families don’t need another president tied to big government or big money,” he said, criticizing Hillary Rodham Clinton and “big business” for pro-immigration policies he said had undercut American workers.

Mr. Santorum, 57, was the surprise winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012, thanks to evangelical Christian voters, and he went on to win 10 other states, dragging out Mitt Romney’s quest for the nomination.

Still, he has struggled to catch on this time around. He is in danger of not making the 10-candidate cutoff for the first Republican debate on Aug. 6, which will be determined by standings in national polls.

One Santorum supporter, who drove 11 hours from Missouri for the announcement speech on a factory floor here, said he liked Mr. Santorum’s new focus on economics.

“I think it will connect with those of us that have abilities and strengths but end up in menial jobs,” said the supporter, Steve Athens, 63, a men’s wear salesman.

Mr. Santorum, who held up a lump of coal to illustrate his connection to a grandfather who was a miner in Pennsylvania, also emphasized his 12 years in the Senate, and he warned “about the gathering storm of radical Islam.”

He boasted that he was recently declared an enemy in the English-language magazine of the Islamic State. “They know who I am, and I know who they are,” he said.

At times, his unwillingness to emphasize the issues that worked for him in 2012 — opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage — and his decision to criticize his own party for being obsessed with cutting taxes for the rich have made him seem the boldest candidate in the race.

In 2012, Mr. Santorum embodied many conservatives’ dissatisfaction with Mr. Romney, who won the nomination after other conservatives proved to have fatal flaws.

Until days before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Santorum was an underfinanced outsider, but his dogged campaigning in all 99 of the state’s counties, often before tiny crowds, paid off. His 34-vote margin of victory was not officially announced until two weeks after the caucuses, something Mr. Santorum resents to this day for costing him momentum in later contests.

This time around, many of his senior aides and supporters have defected to other candidates.

“I worked for Santorum last time,” Cody Hoefert, the co-chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said with a tone of befuddlement. “The guy wins more states than anyone but Romney, and he’s polling at 1 percent.”

One reason for Mr. Santorum’s struggle this year is that in a field shaping up to include a dozen or more Republican contenders, including sitting governors and senators, he has not held office since 2007 and looks to many voters like someone who has already had his shot.

It is a reversal from the days when Republicans deferred to the “next-in-line” candidate, often from the party’s establishment. The grass-roots voters — evangelicals, Tea Party loyalists, libertarians — whom Mr. Santorum benefited from four years ago pay him little deference today.

Addressing 1,000 evangelicals in Iowa last month — at a forum where Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin read from a Christian devotional and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas called on believers to fall to their knees in prayer to stop the Supreme Court from legalizing same-sex marriage — Mr. Santorum called for an increase in the minimum wage, and for Republicans to reach out to the majority of Americans without a college degree.

He criticized his party for being stuck “with a 35-year-old message on the economy,” namely cutting taxes for the rich.

It is a message that has yet to gain much traction with the party’s base. But Mr. Santorum’s interest in economic populism is genuine, said John Brabender, his top strategist.

“He does feel very, very passionate about this whole idea we have to become the voice of working families,” Mr. Brabender said.

The backdrop for Mr. Santorum’s announcement speech reflected the blend of new and old issues: Penn United Technologies in Cabot, a plant that manufactures equipment for the oil and gas industries, and in which employees have an ownership stake. It was founded as a “Christian company” and states on its website that “we exist to glorify God.”

Mr. Santorum grew up nearby, in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh.

One supporter present was Foster Friess, a wealthy investor whose multimillion-dollar donations in 2012 helped Mr. Santorum remain in the race long after he might have quit.

Mr. Friess, in a black cowboy hat, said he would support Mr. Santorum again, but not through a “super PAC,” which reports donors.

“The money I give will be hard to track,” said Mr. Friess, adding that he had spent $26,000 for a private jet to the rally.