Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum likely will announce this month in Butler County that he is running for president.

The Republican will make the announcement on whether he will run for president at 5 p.m. May 27 at Penn United Technologies in Jefferson Township.

He is making his announcement in the county because he spent much of his youth in the Butler area when his parents worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Butler Township.

If Santorum announces a presidential campaign, he will be looking to build on what many considered a surprising 2012 run.

“He did better than expected, considering the significant loss in the 2006 Senate race,” said Michael Coulter, a political-science professor at Grove City College. “He suffered quite the loss in terms of percentage points that year.”

Santorum, who was a U.S. senator from 1995 to 2007 in Pennsylvania, lost to now Sen. Bob Casey Jr. 59 percent to 41 percent in the 2006 election.

“It was a bad environment for Republican candidates,” Coulter said. “President Bush was at his lowest approval ratings.”

Santorum’s loss marked the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent senator in more than two decades.

“It was a very bad loss for an incumbent senator,” Coulter said.

However, Santorum was able to rebound with a strong presidential campaign beginning in 2011.

Santorum announced he was running for president on June 6 that year in front of the Somerset County Courthouse. His grandfather immigrated to Somerset from Italy in 1925.

Santorum’s campaign surged following a victory in the GOP Iowa caucuses, which were Jan. 3, 2012. The initial results that evening had Mitt Romney finishing with eight more votes than Santorum out of 125,000 cast. Romney received 30,015 votes to Santorum’s 30,007.

However, Santorum was declared the official winner of the caucuses later that month following certified results. He edged Romney by 34 votes.

“He spent a lot of time in Iowa in 2010 and 2011,” Coulter said. “He went to all 99 counties. He drove around in his pickup truck as a symbol for his blue collar conservatism.”

Coulter said while Santorum did not start out as a favorite in the race, his success in Iowa was not a total surprise.

“It’s not unusual for a social conservative to do well in Iowa,” he said.

But his early success did propel him into contention in multiple states.

Santorum ended the month by finishing fourth in the New Hampshire, second in South Carolina and third in the Florida primaries.

“His success in Iowa helped him raise money to become a more serious candidate in South Carolina and other states,” Coulter said.

Santorum started February by finishing fourth in the Nevada caucuses. Two days later, he won the Colorado and Minnesota caucuses and the Missouri primary.

Santorum defeated second-place Ron Paul 45 percent to 27 percent in Minnesota and Romney 55 percent to 25 percent in Missouri.

Following those victories, Santorum was tied with Romney atop multiple national polls.

Santorum lost to Romney in Michigan and received 27 percent of the vote in Arizona.

Santorum won three of the 10 states that held elections on Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012. He won North Dakota with 40 percent of the vote, Oklahoma with 34 percent and Tennessee with 37 percent.

He finished second in Ohio, Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts and Vermont. He finished third in Georgia and did not campaign or qualify for the ballot in Virginia.

Romney defeated Santorum in the Ohio primary, considered to be one of the main battleground states. Romney won by about 10,000 votes out of 1.2 million cast.

Santorum finished March by winning primaries in Kansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

He finished second to Romney in Illinois, losing 47 percent to 35 percent. Romney then defeated Santorum in three states on April 3, 2012.

“Santorum was a serious candidate throughout February,” he said. “But he just couldn’t keep up with the financial resources of the Romney campaign.”

Santorum announced the suspension of his campaign on April 10. By that time he had won about 250 delegates. He would have needed 1,144 delegates to win the nomination.

Before the Republican National Convention, he released his delegates to vote for Romney.

Coulter said if Santorum wants more success in this election, he will need to find a way to appeal to a broader audience of voters.

“I think his challenge, like all the other candidates, will be to appeal to more than social conservatives,” Coulter said. “The winning formula is to appeal to different segments of the Republican Party.”

Coulter said other big areas of concern include economic and foreign policy priorities.

Coulter said Santorum also has to work on his charisma.

“He doesn’t have the likability of a Mike Huckabee,” Coulter said. “He has the stern, serious look of a high school principal.”

Coulter said the presidential race is expected to be close on the Republican side with many candidates, meaning Santorum has a chance.

“With such a wide open field, the vote will be split a lot of different ways,” Coulter said.