Santorum ends campaign
WASHINGTON — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum began his presidential campaign May 27, 2015, at Penn United Technologies’ plant in Jefferson Township.
Several hundred people attended his announcement.
He ended his bid for the White House Wednesday after a low finish Monday night in the Republican Iowa caucuses. He got just one percent of the vote.
Santorum spent much of his childhood in Butler while his parents worked at VA Butler Healthcare.
He was a senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007, and a U.S. representative before that.
Santorum said he will support Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the Republican presidential nomination.
Santorum announced on Fox News Channel that he had decided, “The best way to do what I set out to do when we announced the run for president ... (is) by not furthering our campaign.”
Santorum entered the race as a heavy underdog in a crowded Republican field featuring more than a dozen high-profile candidates.
His long-shot status kept him off the main stage in all of the presidential debates, his campaign never earning the support to put him up against heavyweight contenders like billionaire Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Running for president in 2012, Santorum may have exceeded his own expectations by scoring a second-place finish in the race for the GOP presidential nomination before ultimately losing to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
He won 11 states in the GOP’s 2012 primary after an unexpected and narrow victory in Iowa.
But he entered a more powerful and diverse 2016 field, causing his campaign to struggle.
