Rick Santorum was born May perhaps 10, 1958, in Winchester, Virginia, the second of three youngsters. In 1990, a 32-year-old Rick Santorum ran for political workplace for the initial time like a candidate for the U.s. of america Residence of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district. He sought improved workplace, and won election for the Usa of america Senate in 1994. In 2012, he announced his intention to run within the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
A lifelong Republican, the conservative Santorum volunteered for Senator John Heinz’s campaign whilst however in school quickly soon after which worked as an administrative assistant to Republican State Senator Doyle Corman however putting himself by signifies of law school at Dickinson School of Law. Santorum earned his law degree in 1986 and started practicing law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, where he met his future wife, Karen Garver Santorum, with whom he would eventually have seven youngsters. In 1990, a 32-year-old Santorum ran for political workplace for the extremely really very first time as getting a long-shot candidate for the U.s. Property of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, representing the Pittsburgh suburbs where he had been raised. Surprising political experts, Santorum won the election, knocking seven-term Democratic incumbent Doug Walgren out of workplace. Particularly effective in that 1st campaign were Santorum’s charges that Walgren had lost touch with his constituents by spending too much time in Washington and not enough in his district. Like a freshman congressman, Santorum became part of the so-called “Gang of Seven” of new GOP lawmakers (as did future Speaker of the Residence John Boehner); the group made its reputation by fiercely attacking corruption inside the Democratic-controlled Residence, focusing in particular on the Residence banking scandal and the Congressional Post Office scandal.
Rick Santorum Senate Republican
Considered a rising star inside the Republican Party, Santorum soon sought greater workplace and won election for the Usa Senate in 1994, at the age of just 36, again knocking out a long-tenured Democratic incumbent inside the general election. Six years later, Santorum won reelection to a 2nd term and became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third highest-ranking party leadership position within the Senate. A skilled and spirited partisan politician, Santorum became famous for his blunt and aggressive style in Congress, described as “confrontational, partisan, ‘in your face’ style of politics and government.”
Political Views
Rick Santorum garnered attention far beyond the borders of his Pennsylvania constituency for his vigorous advocacy of socially conservative views. “I’m out front on a lot of issues that matter to people of faith,” he said. A conservative Catholic, Santorum became one of Washington’s most prominent traditionalist voices on issues such as abortion, sexual morality, evolution and euthanasia. He introduced legislation that sought to attach to President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education bill the teaching of “intelligent design” as an alternative to Darwinian evolution in science classes. He sought to prevent the husband of a brain-damaged Florida woman named Terri Schiavo from removing her from life support. And he adopted staunchly pro-life positions on all debates over abortion.
Rick Santorum became the center of an odd national controversy in 2003 right right after he was quoted in an interview comparing consensual homosexual relationships.. Liberals and gay rights activists reacted with outrage; nationally syndicated sex advice columnist Dan Savage took revenge by encouraging his readers to come up with a new definition for the word “santorum.” Their graphic and scatological neologism, promoted through one of the first successful “Google bombs” to game the search algorithm, remains the top-ranking result when one enters “Santorum” into the influential search engine. When Santorum started considering a presidential run in 2012, some commentators suggested that he had no chance to win, solely due to this “Google problem.”
During his 2nd term inside of the United states Senate, Rick Santorum became embroiled in a new controversy over his legal residence. Even though officially residing in (and thus representing) Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, Santorum and his family spent most of their time in Leesburg, Virginia. His five eldest youthful young children were enrolled in a cyber school paid for at taxpayers’ expense; in 2004, the school board determined the youthful kids were not legal residents of the Penn Hills district and asked Santorum to repay the district for the cost of their education. This fight dragged on by implies of 2006, opening the senator up to charges that he had abandoned his constituency and thus damaging Santorum’s reelection chances.
Rick Santorum Recent Career Info
In 2006, a year in which Democrats nationwide made sweeping gains in congressional elections, Rick Santorum failed in his reelection campaign to Democrat Bob Casey, losing by a wide margin of 59-41 percent. While within the wake of that loss, Santorum kept a relatively low profile on a national political scene; he ruled out a presidential run in 2008 and also bowed out of the 2010 race for Pennsylvania’s other seat inside the United states of america Senate. Instead, Santorum resumed his work as becoming a lawyer and also became a contributor for the conservative Fox News cable network.
In 2011, nevertheless, Rick Santorum reemerged as staying a potential 2012 presidential candidate, with his well-established social and fiscal conservatism appealing towards the GOP’s energized Tea Party base. Santorum’s official website lists his campaign like a “formation of a testing-the-waters” effort, and he is expected to announce the launch of an official campaign in June 2011. Even though his national polling numbers remain relatively weak, Santorum remains confident about his chances to pull off yet another underdog political victory, and incredibly much enjoys the process: “It gives you the freedom to do what you truly believe is right,” he says.