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Rick Santorum popped the cork on another presidential campaign yesterday. Back in 2012, the former senator gave Mitt Romney an unexpected challenge for the GOP nomination. Here's NPR's Don Gonyea.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Santorum hopes to improve on his last White House run when he narrowly won the Iowa caucuses and captured 10 other states. He's a social conservative with a message of economic populism. This is from his announcement in southwest Pennsylvania, his home state.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
RICK SANTORUM: Working families don't need another president tide to big government or big money. And today is the day. Today is the day we are going to begin to fight back.
(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)
GONYEA: Santorum has already been campaigning for months. In a GOP field of 15 or more, he'll have to work just to hang on to those who backed him in 2012. In Iowa four years ago, he got Sherry Kooiker's vote, but she told NPR at an event for former Texas governor, Rick Perry, that she's considering lots of the options this year.
SHERRY KOOIKER: I listened to Bobby Jindal yesterday. I liked him. And I like Ben Carson. I met him at - in, oh, Des Moines. So that's the problem. It's just very difficult. I want to stay open to the best person.
GONYEA: Polls put Santorum's support in single digits. The top 10 in an average of major national polls will be eligible to join the first debate in August. Don Gonyea, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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