WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum has been here before.
Four years ago this week, Santorum was polling at just one percent nationally. That’s something the eventual winner of the Iowa caucuses and ten other states during the 2012 cycle likes to remind people as he pursues another under-dog bid for the Republican nomination for president.
“I was getting questions from everybody,” he recalled in an hour-long conversation with a pair of reporters at a restaurant inside Union Station this week. “‘Why are you still in the race?’”
The former Pennsylvania senator finds himself back in a similar position: he’s barely polling at one percent in the early states and in national polls — and people, once again, are questioning why he is still running.
Santorum, though, says he won’t stay in the race after the early contests if a path to victory isn’t clear. “The game plan,” the Republican said, “is to try to peak at the right time.”
“You’ve got to prove yourself as a winner early,” Santorum said, suggesting he would drop out of the contest if things don’t go well in the initial caucuses and primaries.
Can you stay in the race if you don’t do well or win Iowa?
“The answer is I don’t think anybody can,” Santorum said while munching on a buffalo chicken salad. “Or, in my opinion, anybody should.”
Wearing black Ray Ban eyeglasses and sitting at a back table in the restaurant Tuesday, Santorum seemed relaxed while discussing a wide-range of topics.
“Can I get a lemonade?” he asked the waiter at one point. “Do you have a lemonade?”
“The hard-stuff,” he said, laughing himself. “You know the sweater vest, lemonade, I’m not cool, I’m not cool.”
Discussing Hillary Clinton’s expected testimony before the Benghazi committee this week, Santorum said: “It seems to me that the mainstream media, the left-wing media, has already written off this story. I would think even if there are fireworks, they’re going to downplay it.”
Asked about House majority leader Kevin McCarthy’s recent comments that have given Democrats the talking point that the committee is politically-motivated, Santorum said: “Obviously, that was really damaging.”
Santorum talked about illegal immigration and the effects it has on the working class, blasting those who favor an “immigration system that says bring as many unskilled workers as you can into this country to compete against the wage earners in this country.”
He said the withdrawal of former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who ran as a centrist Democrat on some issues, from the Democratic primary race was telling. And he sees an opportunity with those voters.
“I think there is no home for the worker in the Democratic Party,” Santorum said. “They’re not a party that focuses, encourages or incentivizes work. They’re a party that incentivizes government. And I think that’s created a huge vacuum where blue-collar Americans — and when I say blue-collar Americans, I don’t necessarily mean manufacturing, I mean wage earners in America — are looking for someone that says, ‘whose on our side?’”
For now, when it comes to having his moment, Santorum is patient. It will either come, or it won’t, he says.
“One of the things I learned four years ago is campaigns have a hard time strategically turning the tide of a race,” he said. “You have to sort of commit yourself to a game plan and realize you have to be patient to let itself work out.”
“I got to raise enough money to stay in the race, which means I got to pay my staff in Iowa, got to pay my national staff, cover all my expenses,” Santorum added. “But I run my campaign like I want to run the government. It’s about as efficiently as any political campaign for president has ever been run.”
Republicans are gathering in Colorado next week for their third televised debate. But Santorum, like the two other times, seems likely to be in the so-called undercard debate which will take place before the prime-time showdown of those polling at the top.
Rival Carly Fiorina benefited from an impressive performance in the first debate. Santorum, though, says he doesn’t go into the debates with canned one-liners and a plan to become the night’s story.
“It’s the whole idea of the dog chasing the car,” he said. “And the last thing the dog actually wants to do is actually catch the car because then you’re going to run into car and it’s not going to turn out well for the dog. And so be careful what you chase.”
He’s confident the polls will be very different by the time the elections roll around.
“The one thing I know about politics,” he said, “is things are going to change…Three weeks ago, you know, Carly was the hottest thing in the world and now for some reason, they took a look and many people said, ‘well, we’re going to move on to somebody else.’”
Referencing Donald Trump and Ben Carson, the two outsiders leading most polls, he said: “And can that happen to the other two candidates? Yeah, of course it can. Will it? I don’t know.”
“All you can do is run your race.”
Santorum has no intention of being like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who he says goes “full attack mode” to get attention for his struggling campaign. Jindal has come out strong against Donald Trump, for example. Santorum hasn’t.
“You can do that,” Santorum said, “but I’d rather make my campaign about me and what I’m going to do and how I differentiate myself from other people. As opposed to going out and attacking people as being incompetent or whatever the case may be. And so that worked four years ago. And eventually the race came around to us.”
“Is there a chance it may not come around to us?” he asked. “Sure. There was a chance four years ago it wouldn’t.”