Santorum: I’m Like Trump, Too

On the eve of a major speech on immigration, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania argued on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he has the history to match frontrunner Donald Trump’s talk.

“I’ve been talking about (immigration) long before everybody else in the campaign, and with specificity, and I’m going to even lay out more specifics,” said Santorum, a GOP candidate for the presidency who has struggled through the beginning of the contest and consistently polled near the bottom. “We don’t have just the rhetoric, we have the record.”

Santorum said his views on immigration and trade are much closer to business mogul Donald Trump’s than to those of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But he said Trump has not been strong enough on social issues.

“I think on the moral and cultural issues, Donald Trump’s position is cloudy at best and certainly not aggressively in favor of traditional marriage and of life and doing the things that are necessary to change that culture of life,” Santorum said. “And I think that will be a factor in the race. I mean, this is an important issue among Republicans.”

Few Republicans can match Santorum’s record as a critic of illegal immigration and free-trade agreements. But he thus far has gained almost no traction.

Few Republicans can match Santorum’s record as a critic of illegal immigration and free-trade agreements. But he thus far has gained almost no traction, languishing at or near the bottom in national surveys and polls in Iowa. Santorum also barely registers in polls of voters in his home state.

Santorum pronounced himself unconcerned.

“I was at 1 percent in the polls four years ago,” he said. “I was at 2 percent in the national polls two weeks before the Iowa caucus. I was at 4 percent in the national polls the day I won the Iowa caucus. So these national polls are really insignificant.”

Santorum said he has been to 80 counties in Iowa and has a bigger national campaign organization than he did at this point in the 2012 race. He argued that the race remains unsettled, with most voters still searching for a candidate among the jumble. He must still establish himself as a credible candidate that people can support — even if they are not yet naming him as their first choice.

“Get on people’s lists,” he said. “That’s what’s important right now.”

Santorum stopped short of saying that he had to win the Iowa caucus to continue in the race, but he acknowledged that a surprisingly strong finish there is crucial. If that happens, he said, it will change the dynamics of the entire race.

“What changes all that is winning,” he said.