Rick Santorum Welcomed By One Person At Iowa Campaign Stop
Rick Santorum deserves some credit, that’s for sure. The word “hopeful” never sounded more appropriate in the phrase “presidential hopeful” than it did today for the Little Candidate That Could.
On a campaign stop in Iowa today, Rick Santorum sat down at a scheduled event with only one other person in attendance. According to The Des Moines Register, she was the county’s Republican Party chairperson.
The campaign stop was in Hamlin, Iowa. The town has a population of only 250, and it was in the middle of a workday. Santorum’s appearance at a local restaurant was underwhelming, to say the least. Although, to be fair, by the time Santorum’s order of breaded tenderloins and onion rings got to the table, three more people had shown up and sat with Santorum. It is not clear if they came with the intent of seeing Santorum, or simply showed up to eat and joined him.
Santorum is used to small events. When he made his trek through Iowa in 2011, gearing up for the caucus there ahead of the 2012 primary season, he often sat at events with only a few people. In 2013, a documentary film called Caucus chronicled Santorum’s sometimes-lonely sojourn through rural Iowa, pressing the flesh with single digit crowds.
“This is what I did a lot of” in the film, Santorum remarked today. “I met with small groups of people, and I ate in front of the camera.”
And that is what he did.
“I haven’t eaten, actually, all day,” Santorum said to Peggy Toft, the Party chair and only person to show by that point. He ordered his food and soldiered on, remarking that he saw such stops as fitting into the big campaign picture.
“It’s not glamorous, and you’re not out there raising money, but you’re doing what the money is ultimately supposed to do — getting votes. This is a lot more fun than being on the phone raising money.”
The stop’s ultimate audience of four people drew attention away from the earlier Santorum campaign stop in Panora, Iowa. That one only drew 10 people.
At Santorum stop in Hamlin, bar advertises a breaded cheese plank. Waaaaaant. #cheeseplank pic.twitter.com/hAlrFuS6n6
— Josh Hafner (@joshhafner) June 8, 2015
Politico spoke to Peggy Toft, the lone Party chair who initially greeted Rick Santorum at that stop in Hamlin. She explained the low turnout at the event.
“We didn’t have a lot of notice that he was going to be there.”
Toft herself says that she is not decided on Santorum as a candidate.
“I feel like I have to get all of the facts,” she said.
Perhaps, as local Republican Party chair, she hopes to hold her endorsement until all the other GOP candidates have a chance to stop and eat.
For his part, Rick Santorum took the low turnout with a dose of positivity.
“People don’t understand. One guy in there said, ‘I’ll speak for you at the caucus,'” Santorum said. “That’s maybe eight votes that you wouldn’t otherwise get. Eight votes can make a big difference, as I know.”
[Image via The Des Moines Register]
