NewsCorp head Rupert Murdoch praised former employee and GOP presidential nominee Rick Santorum via Twitter, just before the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday evening.
“Can’t resist this tweet, but all Iowans think about Rick Santorum,” Murdoch wrote in a tweet on Monday evening. “Only candidate with genuine big vision for country.”
Murdoch, tweeting from his iPad, also voiced his support for Santorum on Sunday.
“Good to see Santorum surging in Iowa,” Murdoch tweeted.
“Regardless of policies, all debates showed principles, consistency and humility like no other.”
Murdoch — whose account sports a “Verified” badge, an indicator from Twitter that the account is official — joined the social network on New Year’s Eve, and currently has over 92,000 followers.
The story, originally reported by the New York Times, was posted on Rick Santorum’s Facebook page early on Tuesday morning.
Santorum Facebook supporters took encouragement from the last-minute endorsement, sharing the news with their friends via Facebook and voicing their support on Santorum’s page.
“I hope that Santorum can win tonight,” wrote one user on Facebook. “Maybe the last hope for social conservatism!”
“[I’m] glad you’re finally getting media support now… That was certainly not the case earlier in the race…,” wrote another supporter. “All these folks that are bent out of shape over this seem to forget that. You’ve made it this far because of who you are and what you stand for, NOT because of media support. Keep going!!!”
Not everyone, however, was convinced that Santorum was experiencing a true surge.
“[I] thought the only candidate with a big vision was Newt? The only thing big with Santorum is big government, and big corruption!,” wrote a dissenter. “There is no surge anyways, it is a media hoax to catch those that leave Gingrich for someone else. Santorum is part of the game and just another fall guy for Romney. Wake Up America, how many times do you want to vote for the same guy over and over again?”
As of midday Tuesday, there was no reply to the endorsement from Santorum’s Twitter account.
