Santorum sees Trump charting new course for GOP

MARION - Donald Trump wasn't Rick Santorum's first choice for the Republican presidential nomination.

'I was for somebody else,” the winner of the 2012 Iowa GOP precinct caucuses joked Monday. 'But once I got that silly idea out of my head” - Santorum finished last in the state this year with 1 percent of the caucus vote - 'I endorsed Donald Trump.”

But the former Pennsylvania senator hasn't given up on a populist message he says embraces the values and concerns of America's working people who are not sharing in what little economic growth there has been in recent years.

'A rising tide lifts all boats except if your boat has a hole in it,” Santorum told about 50 people at MJ's Restaurant in Marion, where he joined U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and 1st District U.S. Rep. Rod Blum for a pep rally. 'We have millions and millions of Americans with holes in their boats, so when the tide goes up - and it has, just look at Wall Street, look at real estate prices - so why don't people feel well? Because when the tide is up and you're in a boat has a hole, you're sinking deeper.”

Although Republican proposals to cut taxes and regulation will help, he said, for the most part Republicans 'have been deaf” to working people's concerns.

But Trump, who he called a 'blunt instrument,” has tapped into that angst, he said.

'Donald Trump has begun the process, whether he is successful or not, he will have changed the map and provided a new course … the path through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The Rust Belt.”

For Trump's economic policies to get a chance, he needs to win Iowa.

'You're one of the states that matter,” Santorum said. 'It always seems to come down to Iowa.”

He encouraged each person to contact 10 voters to make sure Iowa is in the Trump column.

'I know something about close elections in Iowa,” Santorum said, referring to the 2012 caucuses when Mitt Romney initially was declared the winner by eight votes. Two weeks later, the Iowa GOP declared Santorum the winner by less than three dozen votes.

'If it comes down to eight votes, your 10 may make the difference,” Santorum said.