Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) suggested Monday that his presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wasn’t the clear favorite going into the Iowa caucuses for one glaring reason: nobody likes him.
“He should be doing victory laps around the state of Iowa right now, and he has been fumbling all the way to the goal line,” Santorum told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“I think folks are going to take a look at what happened here in Iowa and say we need someone, number one, who actually is a conviction conservative, somebody who hasn’t changed his opinion on a bunch of issues, and I think someone who actually isn’t going to go to Washington and make the claim that the reason I can get things done is because everybody—Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives—hate me,” he continued. “I don’t know how you think you can actually accomplish anything with any group of people if everybody, even people who agree with you, hate you.”
Santorum, who bested former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in a surprise victory in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, positioned himself as a Christian conservative who knew how to compromise with his political rivals. He acknowledged that he needed a “strong showing” to remain competitive in the 2016 race.
“We need someone who can actually work with people, both Republicans and Democrats, and get conservative things done for this country,” Santorum said. “That’s why the people of Iowa voted for me last time.”
