Rick Santorum (10 May 1958-) was a US Senator from Pennsylvania (R) from 3 January 1995 to 3 January 2007, succeeding Harris Wofford and preceding Bob Casey Jr.. He also served as a member of the US House of Representatives (R-PA 18) from 3 January 1991 to 3 January 1995, succeeding Doug Walgren and preceding Michael F. Doyle.
Biography[]
Richard John Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1958, and he grew up in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. He served as chairman of Pennsylvania State University's College Republicans chapter, and he volunteered for US Senator John Heinz during the 1970s before becoming a lawyer. He left his private law practice in 1990, when he was elected to the US House of Representatives. He defeated seven-term incumbent Doug Walgren by a 51%-49% margin, and he would become one of few Republicans to support the prohibition of employers from permanently replacing striking employees and to oppose NAFTA.
Santorum was elected to the US Senate in 1994, and he was one of the strongest supporters of responsible tax and spending policies. In 2001, he added a clause to the No Child Left Behind bill that gave schools greater freedom to include the teaching of intelligent design alongside evolution, although scientific and educational groups successfully urged its conference committee to strike the Santorum Amendment from the final version. He was also a staunch neoconservative, supporting George W. Bush's wars in the Middle East and supporting the governments of Israel, Lebanon, and Iraq against radical Islamists. In 2006, Santorum ran for re-election, but he made the mistake of praising President Bush, who had a meagre 38% approval rating at the time. Santorum lost re-election to Bob Casey Jr., and he would go on to launch failed presidential campaigns in 2012 and 2016. In 2017, he became a CNN political commentator.