Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Announcement of Candidacy
Penn United Technologies
Cabot, Pennsylvania
May 27, 2015

Thank you so much. What an amazing feeling to be up here with the folks who have made it possible for me. You know I would start with my family, and so I am.

I just want to thank Karen, my sweetheart, all of my kids, for all of the sacrifices they made so we could be here today. I love you more than words. God bless you. Thank you so much.

As you can see, we brought a little special gift up; she wanted to meet you. And that’s our sweet daughter Bella, who just turned seven years old a couple of weeks ago.  Bella also requested that she could go play during the speech. So we’re going to let her go.

Now I know this stage looks densely populated with our family, but we are actually still missing one member of our family and that is our son Daniel, who just last week, went to field training in the Air Force down in Alabama. Daniel, I am proud of you. Thank you. 

And, I also have to thank Penn United Technologies. We have disrupted this entire place for a week. God Bless you Bill, Becky, and everybody, thank you.  

And I just want to thank all of you for being here, for taking time out of your work and your schedule. And for many of you, there are people from 32 states that are here tonight. so I just want to thank you for being here.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a piece of coal. This is where my American story started. My grandfather, Pietro, was a coal miner who brought my Dad, 7 year old Aldo, from fascist Italy.

Like millions of other Americans, he didn’t come for this [holding up the piece of coal]. He came for this [holding up folded American flag] – freedom. 

My dad grew up in a coal town, actually a company town, during the Depression, without indoor plumbing. It took a war to get him out of the coal town – off to the Pacific – then the G.I. Bill to college. And then to a Veterans Hospital in West Virginia. It’s there he met a wonderful nurse, Catherine Dughi, who is my mom.
    
Mom is 96. She shouldn’t be here today, but I just want to say hello to my mom, who I know is watching. They took me on a voyage at seven years of age from West Virginia to Butler, Pennsylvania. We lived on the VA post in World War II government apartments surrounded by our nation's veterans.

Most of my friends though, their dads worked in the mills and the mines. They got off shift and coached us in sports and in life. They were the generation of God-fearing people who built this country and at the same time, were the foundation of the country.

In the late 70's, like many of you, we saw the economic devastation here in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across this country, particularly in manufacturing, as a result of the excesses and indifference of big labor, big government, and yes, big business. Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the epicenter, we lost over 100,000 jobs in what seemed to be overnight.

That has to and did leave a mark on all of us. Afterwards, big government and big business told our workers that times have changed, American workers could no longer compete with low foreign wages and that those jobs were gone forever. Well, what about those politicians? For all those years, what did they do? What did they do for communities across this area and across this country and in small town America? They had no plan, and they provided no hope. And to that, I say, no longer.

As Middle America is hollowing out, we can’t sit idly by as big government politicians make it harder for our workers and then turn around and blame them for losing jobs overseas. Working families don’t need another President tied to big government or big money. And today is the day, today is the day we are going to begin to fight back.  
 
I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for President of the United States.

I'll offer a bold vision for America, one that’s clear and conservative, that has plans to reform and has a proven track record that I have in my time in service. Step one in taking back America, step one, let's scrap the corrupt federal tax code and the IRS that goes with it.

It’s time to give America a simple, fair, flat tax.  It will create millions of good paying jobs. It will rebuild our factories, and it will increase take-home pay for workers in America.

Powered by the shale revolution and the renewable revolution. Powered by those two revolutions, we have regained the title of the world leader in energy production. 

With low-cost energy and our bold plan, I promise you we will regain the title of a leader in world manufacturing.

And that’s not all. We will shrink government, we will reduce spending, we will revoke every executive order and regulation – yeah.  We will revoke every executive order and regulation that costs American jobs.  

From day one, we will work to bring back America and put Americans back to work. 

American workers deserve a shot at these jobs. Over the last 20 years, we’ve brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 million mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages have flat lined.

Hillary Clinton and big business, they have called for a massive influx in unskilled labor. Business does it because they want to control costs. Hillary does it – well – she just wants votes. Their priorities are profits and power. My priority is you, the American worker. 

You don't believe me, don’t take my word for it. Yesterday, the largest pro-worker immigration group just published a survey that showed that only one candidate got an "A" standing behind American workers, and he’s standing here today.
 
We can create jobs, but as we’ve all seen America can't succeed unless we strengthen the first economy – the American family.  It’s time we have a President who sees the struggle of working families in America not as an opportunity to divide us along race or class – but as a chance to unite us around the ideal that every child in America deserves her birthright – to be raised by her parents in a healthy home.

Stronger families and more jobs will result in better schools. But our children, well, they deserve and education customized, customized, to maximize their potential.  The first step in the process is joining me to drive a stake in the heart of Common Core.
  
I can’t forget about the other people that I grew up with out at the VA in Butler – our wounded warriors. I saw the price of freedom. I saw the cost of failed political leadership. The Obama-Clinton team, they don’t understand that peace comes through strength.  [chants: USA, USA...]

But, when I see our heroic veterans dying, waiting in line at the VA, because these very same leaders don’t care enough to give them what they’ve earned – the best medical care in the world. – I say join me, take back America, and help these veterans.     

As you’ve seen, Commander in Chief is not an entry-level position. And the White House is the last place for on-the-job training. It’s critical that both our allies and our friends know what to expect from our next President. 

Last month, i was featured in an online magazine. That’s usually a good thing. But in this case, the online magazine was the magazine of the Islamic state, ISIS. Under the headline, under the headline "in the words of our enemy," was my picture and a quote. "After 12 years of legislating and warning about the gathering storm of radical Islam, they know who I am and I know who they are."  In that article, I described who they are and how to defeat them. And ladies and gentlemen, if I’m the next President, we will defeat them.
 
Finally, we must take back America from those who seek to deny us our God-given rights of life and liberty. As President, I will stand for the principle that every life matters – the poor, the disabled, and the unborn.  I will also fight for the freedom for you to believe what you are called to believe, not just in your places of worship, but outside of your places of worship too.     

Karen and I have learned a lot in our life and if there's one thing we've learned, man is limited and God is not. 

There is much we can do. But first, we need to pray for the same kind of great awakening that inspired and provided our founding to come to this country to heal our land.

Now if you watch any of these announcements here coming up this week, you are going to see a lot of folks saying what they’re going to do. That’s what they do. But how do you know who to trust? Well, you look at their record.

I went to Washington and said I was going to fight corruption. And I delivered.     

I went to end welfare, to reduce poverty, and to put people back to work. And I delivered. 

I went to give patients control over their health care through Health Saving Accounts. And I delivered.  

I went to end partial-birth abortion. And I delivered.    

I went to impose sanctions on Syria and Iran to protect the state of Israel and this country. And I delivered.  

And I went to cut taxes and promised never to raise them. And I delivered.     

Our record of standing for you and standing up against big government is clear. 92% conservative voting record. How does someone like that get elected in the Mon Valley of Pittsburgh, in one of the most Democratic areas of the state?

How does someone with a conservative voting record get elected twice to the state of Pennsylvania, where there’s over a million more registered Democrats than Republicans?

Because I stood for you and against big government in Washington DC.  

Fighting in those races, both here in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across Pennsylvania, I know what it’s like to be an underdog.

Four years ago, well, no one gave us much of a chance. But we won 11 states.  We got four million votes. And it’s not just because I stood for something. It’s because I stood for someone – the American worker.
 
I promised then as I promise you now, I will take money and power out of Washington and put it back where our Constitution says it belongs – in the people who earned it.  [chants: Rick, Rick...]

The last race, we changed the debate. This race, with your help, and God's Grace, we can change this nation.
 
Join us. Join us. RickSantorum.com. And let’s take back America. God Bless you. God Bless America.

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[Speech length: about 22m30s].

Music - "Take Back America" official Santorum campaign theme song
First verse and refrain: