Santorum announces second run for president

Associated Press

CABOT, Pa.

Conservative culture warrior Rick Santorum launched a 2016 White House bid on Wednesday, vowing to fight for working-class Americans in a new election season that will test his influence — and focus on social issues — in a changing Republican Party.

The former Pennsylvania senator may have exceeded his own expectations by scoring a second-place finish in the race for the Republican presidential nomination four years ago. Yet as he enters a more powerful and diverse 2016 field, he may struggle even to qualify for the debate stage in his second run.

Santorum opens this political season as a heavy underdog in a race expected to feature more than a dozen high-profile Republicans — most of them newcomers to presidential politics. He is among the nation’s most- prominent social conservatives, having dedicated much of his political career to opposing same-sex marriage and abortion rights, while advocating for conservative Christian family values.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is blaming his own party for the rise of the Islamic State group. The freshman senator from Kentucky said Wednesday that the GOP’s foreign-policy hawks “created these people.” That assertion led potential 2016 rival Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s governor, to say Paul was unqualified to be president. The Islamic State group, commonly referred to as ISIS, has seized one-third of Iraq and Syria and in recent days made gains in central Iraq.

Foreign policy has emerged as a central debate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

Many of Paul’s Republican colleagues have offered aggressive rhetoric but few specifics when asked about IS.