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Rick Santorum
Updated Mar 01, 2012 by
ShiaLabeouf
Richard John "Rick" Santorum (born May 10, 1958) is an American Republican Party politician. He served as a United States Senator representing Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007, and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.
Born in Virginia, Rick Santorum was raised primarily in Butler, Pennsylvania. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, and a law degree degree from the Dickinson School of Law. Santorum worked as an attorney at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He married Karen Garver in 1990 and they are the parents of eight children, one of whom died shortly after birth. Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district in 1990, becoming a member of a group dubbed the "Gang of Seven". Santorum was elected as a United States Senator for Pennsylvania in 1994 and served there until losing his re-election bid in 2006.
Santorum holds socially conservative positions, including opposition to same-sex marriage and birth control. In the Senate, he voted for tax cuts and a balanced budget amendment, supported the use of earmarks, and played a leading role in enacting welfare reform. He also supported programs in education and transportation.
In the years following his departure from the Senate, Santorum worked as a consultant, private practice lawyer, and news contributor. In June 2011, Santorum announced that he would run for the 2012 Republican president nomination. As a presidential candidate, he has emphasized fiscal restraint and expressed hawkish views regarding Iran. Despite running in the bottom tier of candidates for several months, he won the caucuses in Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and the Missouri primary, and quickly rose to the top of national polls.
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