Why santorum lost

Santorum — who in lost a reelection bid to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. And that was before incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln lost her Senate seat in by 21 points. Lenski noted in his Aug. That is probably why the only recent name on the list is Rick Santorum in It was a big loss for Santorum, Lenski told us by phone. Incumbent Sen. Graphic showing Santorum's campaigns: link. Video on Santorum's focus heading into Ohio race: link.

Pennsylvania has backed the Democratic candidate for president in every race since , while voters tend to be more conservative in statewide races. In , Rick Santorum, then a year-old attorney, set his sights on a U. Republican leaders and friends tried to persuade Santorum to run instead for a relatively safe Pennsylvania house seat in Harrisburg.

He told friends that Walgren was too liberal for the district and that a conservative could win. Santorum went all in. He quit his job and convinced his soon-to-be wife to quit hers and hit the campaign trail.

Ron Klink, a Pittsburgh television reporter who would later go into politics as a Democrat and would lose the Senate race to Santorum, remembers Santorum standing on a bridge leading into downtown Pittsburgh, waving his campaign sign at passing cars. Schmidt says Santorum was involved in all aspects of campaigning. He wore out three pairs of shoes criss-crossing the congressional district, says Schmidt.

Santorum would often follow up with a hand-written note to voters he had met that day, Schmidt says. Santorum had a simple message: The incumbent, Walgren, was out of touch with his district because he lived in the Washington area rather than in Pennsylvania.

Pro-life was really gathering steam Santorum ended up winning the district with just over 51 percent of the vote. The economy was also an issue in Pennsylvania in , and Santorum lost 66 percent to 34 percent among voters to whom the economy was a critical issue. Santorum even ran disappointingly on values issues, his usual strength, splitting the vote among those who said values were extremely important. But it wasn't all issues. Santorum also made personal decisions that came back to haunt him in For example, even though he owned a modest home in Pennsylvania, he moved his family to a much nicer house in Virginia, leading to charges not only that he had abandoned his home state but also that he had gone native in Washington.

That cost Pennsylvania taxpayers thousands of dollars a year, and some of Santorum's political opponents demanded that he reimburse the state. Pay it back. Finally, there was Santorum's personality. In the Senate as well as in his home state, Santorum often struck people as arrogant and headstrong, preachy and judgmental.

Even today, he sometimes becomes so involved in an argument that he seems intent more on winning the argument than reaching some sort of useful agreement. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. Skip to Main Content Skip to Search. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services.

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