Rick Santorum is on pace to have visited all of Iowa’s 99 counties this year before Labor Day — sending a message that he believes his best bet of winning the 2016 GOP presidential nomination starts with grinding out a positive result in the Hawkeye State.
The Santorum campaign announced Tuesday that the former Pennsylvania senator is scheduled to reach the milestone — dubbed the ’Full Grassley” after Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley — on Sept. 1.
That puts Mr. Santorum a couple months ahead of his pace from the 2012 GOP race, when he won the Iowa caucuses, the opening contest in the nomination battle, and captured 10 other states before dropping out.
The 57-year-old plans to celebrate the feat at an event in Rock Rapids, Iowa, located in Lyon County, which sits in the northwest corner of the state. Mr. Santorum easily outpaced Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican field in Lyon County in 2012 by winning about 60 percent of the vote.
He has struggled to breakthrough in the polls and as result was relegated to the so-called “kiddie’s table” debate earlier this month, missing a chance to deliver his message to the more than 20 million viewers that tuned in for Fox News prime-time event.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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