Former Sen. Rick Santorum
Primary Night
Manchester, NH
January 10, 2012
[Transcript DEMOCRACY IN ACTION]

...Thank you very, very much.  Thank you, Dan and for all of the folks up here, I want to thank you very much for everything you've done in New Hampshire.

You know we came up here just about ten days ago.  The polls were having us about one or two percent; after Iowa, the most recent poll was three percent.  We have depending on your math, either ten times, five times or three times where we started and that's what we wanted to do.  We wanted to respect the process here.  We wanted to respect the fact that we were going to campaign in every single state, states that you know were good for us and states that may be a little tougher.  When you're running in a state like New Hampshire that you know had a lot of folks here and spending a lot of time here and a lot of money, we knew it would be tough, but you know what?  The message we had of going out and believing, believing in the American people.  Believing that we needed to have opportunity not just for some in America, but we needed someone who was going to go out and speak for all Americans to be able to have the opportunities to rise in society.

And we took that message here to New Hampshire.  We took it, talking about our manufacturing plan, talking about what we were going to do to grow this economy, and we took it to talk about faith and family as the bedrock of our society. [cheers, applause]

And by your work and the grassroots effort and the crowds that we had, we built, we built this campaign here in New Hampshire in just a very short period of time.  We didn't spend a lot of money, but we put a lot of effort into this and we put our message out there.  We came where the campaign was, and we delivered a message not just for New Hampshire, but we delivered a message for America.  That we have a campaign here, yeah... [applause] that we have a campaign that has a message and a messenger that can deliver what we need, which is first and foremost to defeat Barack Obama, number one. [cheers, applause]

It's a message as I mentioned in Iowa from the grandson of a coal miner, someone who believed deeply that the responsibility he had as someone who risked his life for a sovereign, a king when he served in the Austrian army during World War I and he fought on the Russian front.  And if it wasn't for the aid of a friend in the middle of the night crawling out from a foxhole and pulling my wounded grandfather back into that foxhole I wouldn't be here today.  He fought for someone who didn't care about him or his freedom or his children's freedom.  And so he came to America because he wanted to make sure that his children would be in a free country and his grandchildren would be in a free country.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is our charge and that is what is at stake in America today. [cheers, applause]

Let me assure you.  He was not deterred by temporary setbacks.  He believed in the greatness of this country and he believed in the freedom of opportunity that this country presented.

We are going to go on to South Carolina.  For those...  [cheers, applause]  For those who would like to think that somehow or another that this race can be over in one or two states, states that have been well let's say the backyard and the home of a certain candidate.  [laughter]  Who by the way I want to absolutely congratulate Mitt Romney for a great victory tonight. [applause]  He worked hard in this state; he invested in this state, and the people of New Hampshire gave him a very hard-earned victory, and I spoke with Gov. Romney and congratulated him on that win and said that I'm looking forward to engaging on the subject matter on issues, talking about records, talking about how we're going to best put the best foot forward and put the best person forward to deliver a message to the American people that can unite us.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an opportunity in this race.  We have an opportunity to be the true conservative, the true conservative who can go out and do what's necessary, not just to win this race—and we can win this race [cheers, applause]—but to be the conservative who understands that at the foundation of our country are institutions that are crucial for us to be a successful nation. 

Families, families that are bonded together as the foundation that instill virtue and faith in our children to build strong communities and build a great nation from the bottom up.  That's the message.  Along with a government that understands that we have to create a playing field for all Americans of a variety of different skill sets to be able to be successful in this country.  We have a message that can appeal not just in South Carolina, but across this nation and in particular in the states that are necessary for us to win this election—in the states that are the swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Indiana and Michigan.  The states that I've been successful, like in Pennsylvania, in winning elections.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are not only going to go out and deliver a message of the basic, the basic structure and the foundation of our country being faith and family and an opportunity society, but we're going to do so understanding that with faith in the American people we can not only wipe out this deficit, we can not only rebuild this economy, we can not only have a strong America which stands up for the values that I just talked about, but we can do so in a huge victory that will rally this country to take on the great challenges we have before us. [cheers, applause]

On to South Carolina.  Thank you and God bless you.

[mic. picks up Santorum's wife saying, "You didn't introduce us."  Santorum responds, "I'm sorry about that."]

[Chants: "We pick Rick"]

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Transcript Copyright © 2012 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.  All rights reserved.