By Aleksandra Vujicic
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum greeted roughly 45 people with a pint of beer nearby and a square slice of buffalo chicken pizza in hand at the Airliner Tuesday night.
The University of Iowa College Republicans hosted Santorum during its weekly meeting, as he worked to separate himself from Republican orthodoxy.
“Republicans do a lousy job of communicating with American workers, and the people who are having trouble rising in society,” he said, noting that the party seems to focus on business and economic growth which gives American workers the sense they don’t care about them.
Santorum backed up his blue-collar appeal referencing his 2012 run for the presidency.
“We always did really, really well among lower-income voters, blue-collar voters,” he said, differentiating himself from former GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who, he contended, portrayed a vision that was not inclusive.
Janelle Smithson, the head of the UI College Republicans, said his focus on inclusion was an effective approach.
“I think rhetoric like that can work in the future,” she said. “I think it’s important to remember everyone. A lot of the time, people like to target certain groups, and I think it’s important to attempt to encompass everyone.”
A lot has changed since the 2012 cycle, when Santorum won the Iowa caucuses. He beat former Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a slim 34-vote margin.
But the Iowa political atmosphere is different this time around, with a crowded GOP playing field that Santorum told The Daily Iowan has pushed the level of uncertainty to be “very, very high.”
“It’s still a wide-open race because people are still deciding,” he said. “Because there are so many candidates, so many good people, it just makes it hard to make a decision and we’re certainly a victim of it.”
More recently, Santorum garnered less than 1 percent support from Republican primary voters in a Fox News poll conducted by telephone Oct. 10-12.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points among GOP voters.
An October NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll conducted in Iowa similarly showed Santorum at 1 percent support, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
Santorum’s appearance at the Airliner, 22 S. Clinton St., is one out of a handful of stops in eastern and central Iowa this week. He is scheduled to make appearances in Keota, Cedar Rapids, and Urbandale today, before attending the Building America Housing Summit in Des Moines on Thursday.
Students and community members also brought up a slate of issues including immigration, the Iran nuclear deal, which he called “suicidal,” and a topic that hits close to home for many students: rising interest rates on student loans.
Santorum said a growing default rate on student loans has led to increased interest rates in order for credit companies to cover costs.
“The core problem here is the cost of education,” he said, turning the issue to what colleges and universities are doing to cut costs. Santorum called himself the only candidate who would increase the minimum wage, proposing a 50-cent an hour raise per year for three years.
“In the overall caucus, I don’t think the average person would support a higher minimum wage, and that’s not a very conservative message,” said UI junior Daniel Shovers.