Republican 2024 hopefuls have been seeking advice from Rick Santorum, the ‘patron saint of longshot wins,’ who came from nowhere to triumph in Iowa in 2012

Republican presidential candidates turned to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to ask him how he secured his long-term victory in the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

Politico reported Thursday. on Santorum’s new importance: The former lawmaker said he has been approached for advice by at least two election campaigns in the past few weeks.

He declined to name them, but advisers to entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence publicly withdrew Santorum’s name before he dropped out of the race.

“I’m a patron of all these guys who are looking to win long term, and that’s great,” Santorum said.

current Real Clear Politics poll average former President Donald Trump holds a 28.6 percent lead over the second-place candidate in Iowa, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was the surprise winner of the 2012 Iowa caucuses, a political moment that 2024 GOP challengers are hoping to emulate even though he trails by about 30 points against former President Donald Trump.

Santorum said in a recent interview that he accomplished the feat by traveling across the state and participating in 385 town halls and speeches. His conservative politics resonated well with right-wing voters in Iowa. Santorum photographed at the 2022 CPAC event.

Of the prominent candidates, DeSantis has focused most on Iowa.

He has the most to gain—and lose—from his performance in the Jan. 15 caucus.

The Florida governor visited all 99 Iowa counties and secured the long-awaited support of the state’s popular Hawkeye Governor Kim Reynolds.

He was also endorsed by Bob Vander Plats, the state’s leading evangelical leader.

But Nikki Haley, who averages 15.7 percent of support from likely Iowa voters to DeSantis’ 18.7 percent, also has a lot to gain from a better-than-expected caucus result as she edged out the Florida governor in New Hampshire. which will hold the nation’s first Republican primary on January 23.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has focused almost all of his attention on New Hampshire, where undeclared voters are allowed to participate.

Ramaswamy is doing better in Iowa polls than Christie, with an average of 5 percent of likely voters backing him, compared with just 3.7 percent for the former New Jersey governor.

At least two campaigns have asked Santorum for advice, but he did not specify which ones. (Left to right) Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former UN Ambassador. Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at the fourth debate

Santorum was expelled from Congress in 2006 when Pennsylvania voters elected moderate Democratic son Bob Casey Jr. by about 18 points.

It was one of the first GOP casualties of the night, which ultimately led to the House and Senate turning blue.

Santorum then joined the crowd of 2012 Republican candidates trying to prevent Democratic President Barack Obama from winning a second term.

His conservative credentials were strong in Iowa, where he narrowly beat eventual nominee Mitt Romney and former Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-friendly candidate.

He did this, he reminded Politico, through good old-fashioned retail politics.

“The story you guys have never told, and I don’t think you’re interested in telling – you certainly didn’t tell it then – is about some guy who lost his Senate race by 18 percent in six years before the caucus and went to Iowa, took a truck and a car, campaigned all over the state, spent less than a million dollars during the entire campaign and won the Iowa caucuses,” Santorum said. “Frankly, if I were a Democrat, I would be a hero in national politics. But because I am who I am, no one will ever know.”

Santorum has given 385 town halls and speeches across the state and driven around in a silver 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck nicknamed “Chuck’s Truck” after his Iowa aide, Chuck Laudner.

Santorum’s victory was reduced in part because the results that night were not entirely clear.

And that was further clouded by the fact that he didn’t win the Republican nomination.

At least one Politico source questioned whether Santorum’s efforts could be replicated with the same results in the modern Trump-dominated era.

“This was back when we all had this streak theory of politics that Trump kind of abandoned,” David Kochel, a veteran of several presidential campaigns in Iowa, told the news site.

Kochel said the main thing now “has to do with the personality and the celebrity.” He is the axis around which voters define who they are.”

Santorum himself tried to recapture that magic in 2016, but won by just 1,783 votes statewide, with conservative Sen. Ted Cruz winning the caucuses and Trump coming in second.