Santorum takes presidential campaign to Myrtle Beach area

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said during a tour of PTR Industries on Monday that revitalizing the manufacturing economy was the focus of his presidential campaign, and praised South Carolina for its success in attracting new businesses.

“That’s what we’re going to need if we’re going to help the 74 percent of Americans who don’t have a college, four-year degree,” Santorum said. “We need to have opportunities, we have a lot of people in this country who are hurting because we haven’t done a good job attracting manufacturing into this country.”

South Carolina has been successful in enticing new industry because the state and localities have built a favorable climate for business, and invested in training workers to have the technical skills required for the manufacturing sector, Santorum said.

The Pennsylvania Republican has been campaigning across South Carolina in the past few days. He also spoke Monday at Coastal Carolina University, and gave the keynote address to Christians United for Israel.

Among a substantial number of GOP presidential contenders vying for the 2016 nomination, Santorum is polling near the bottom of most national polls but ahead of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in some Iowa polls.

In the 2012 Iowa Caucus, Santorum beat former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. However, Santorum ran third in South Carolina, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Romney.

“Had I won here, that would have been a whole different game,” Santorum said.

Instead, the nomination went to Romney, whose moderate politics was not enough to solidify the conservative Republican base or turn out independent voters and the former Massachusetts governor lost to President Obama.

Heading into the 2016 election, Republican voters are flocking to candidates like Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, and freshmen U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, polls show.

Santorum warned that voters should be wary of the frontrunners, who he says are lacking in experienced statesmanship needed to get the country back on track.

“They have almost zero experience between all four of them, in a time when our economy is in a mess and our culture is in a very difficult situation, and you’re talking about people with no experience taking on the most difficult job in the history of mankind,” Santorum said.

“I understand that people are frustrated and angry, and that they want something different, but we’re talking about very serious issues — experience does matter,” Santorum said. “You won’t get change, you’ll get more of the same and that just won’t happen with me.”

Santorum’s conservative credentials are popular with the GOP’s evangelical wing, especially his pro-life stance and support for the Second Amendment.

Santorum dismissed the outcry from Planned Parenthood supporters that anti-abortion rhetoric was to blame for the tragic shooting Friday at a clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., where a police officer and two others were killed.

“The fact of the matter is all this life is sacred, and whether it’s killed with a gun or killed in an abortion mill, we should find that a tragedy in this country,” Santorum said.

“And the idea that somehow guns are responsible is just like saying surgical equipment is responsible for abortion,” Santorum said. “Surgical equipment is not responsible for abortion; the people performing the abortion are the ones responsible and should be held accountable. The people who sell body parts are the ones who should be held accountable for what they do.”

Robert Lewis Dear Jr., 57, is charged with killing three people and wounding nine others during the Friday rampage. Media reports portray Dear as a mentally disturbed individual, who lived off the grid in North Carolina before relocating to Park County, Colorado.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Santorum takes presidential campaign to Myrtle Beach area."