SPOKANE, Wash. -- Still smarting from a decision in Michigan's delegate process that favored Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum on Thursday told an audience of more than 500 people here that Washington state has an opportunity "to shift the election again."
"A couple of days ago, there were elections in a couple of states that were, let's just say, tailor-made for a certain candidate in this race," Santorum said of Romney in a rally held at the New Life Assembly of God Church. "One that, you know, he's been campaigning a long time and spent a lot of money and it demographically worked out very, very well for him; the other was his home state."
But the former Pennsylvania senator, who held a double-digit lead in Washington in one recent poll, said he's optimistic about his chances in the Evergreen State's upcoming caucus. "We think we can surprise a lot of people here on Saturday," he said.
Although Santorum recently has complained about being pigeonholed as a “social warrior,” he spent almost none of his speech addressing the economy. Instead, he talked about “the value of every human life,” and touted the “folks who don’t agree with us on the tax code, but agree with us on the importance of faith and family.”
Santorum has no current plans to return to the state before Super Tuesday, and will instead make swings through Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee.
In a separate appearance on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, Santorum said his campaign raised $9 million during February, with about two-thirds of it from small donations.
"We got a grass roots effort out here that, you know, [is] trying to combat the inside crowd … the good old boys funding Romney's campaign,” he said.
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