Northwest Iowa — Republican Presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum made appearances in northwest Iowa on Wednesday in preparation for the Iowa Caucuses, coming up in a week and a half.
Santorum stopped at the Lantern Coffeehouse in Sibley Wednesday morning. Then he made an appearance at Frontier Bank in Rock Rapids, before making a 12:30 PM visit to the Pizza Ranch in Sheldon.
Santorum, who is polling low at this point says he polled low in 2012 also, but he went on to win the state of Iowa and ten more states in the caucuses that year. He says as the race gets down to the wire, he sees it changing. He says in 2012, 37 percent of Iowa caucus-goers made their decision on caucus night. He mentioned that he sees the last two weeks as kind of a demolition derby among the candidates.
He talked about the Renewable Fuel Standard and how it supports ethanol. He says the RFS is essential to the Iowa economy and says he doesn’t see it as a subsidy, but rather a way of allowing ethanol access to the market. He also said he voted for the RFS because it helps reduce our dependency on foreign oil.
At the Rock Rapids meeting, Santorum was asked what his top three issues are. He said his number one issue is combating radical Islam, which includes ISIS. He says that the removal of nuclear sanctions on Iran is “delusionally” dangerous. Secondly, Santorum says we have to address and repair the breakdown of the family. He says the breakdown of the family is the root of many of today’s problems. Finally, Santorum says we need to restore the manufacturing base.
He says his immigration plan includes working out an 3-year work visa plan for people who are in this country illegally but who are genuinely doing jobs that American-born workers don’t want, such as several agriculture jobs. But for everyone else in the country illegally, Santorum says he would give them three months to leave, and if they didn’t, they would be permanently banned from entering the United States.
We asked Santorum if he had a message for northwest Iowans.
He says that especially when it comes to foreign policy and dealing with radical Islam, experience matters.
Santorum had a stop in Spirit Lake on Tuesday and after his Sheldon stop went on to Cherokee for a similar town hall-type meeting.
