NEWTON, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his wife had the crowd hanging on every word at a campaign stop Monday afternoon as the former Pennsylvania senator somberly recounted how their son died shortly after being born.
As Santorum told the story, he and his wife, Karen, teared up. He recounted the experience in response to a question from a woman in the crowd.
“We’re blessed with seven children, but we suffered a loss,” he said. “Many, many families do. We suffered the loss of a child who was born and didn’t live very long.”
Santorum continued: “It was a very difficult time in our life. We tried everything we could to save his life. And we failed.”
He explained how he and his wife brought their son home where they had a funeral for him.
“We brought him home so our children could see,” Santorum said.
Before being asked about the story of his son, Santorum seemed energized and invigorated by the large crowd that showed up at the Pizza Ranch. He has surged in recent days to the top tier in Iowa, where Republicans will caucus Tuesday. (RELATED: Full coverage of Rick Santorum)
The initial question to Santorum was for his reaction to liberal commentator Alan Colmes saying on Fox News that Santorum will suffer in the polls for “the crazy things he’s said and done like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real.”
After the event, some in the crowd expressed to Santorum how they found Colmes’ comment inappropriate.