Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday said he wished the best to Jeb Bush hours before the former Florida governor announced his White House bid.
“I sent him a note this morning, an email, just to congratulate him and wish him the best, tell him that he is in our prayers,” Santorum said. “I’ve done that with several of the other folks who I’m friendly with in the campaign. I know how hard it is. I mean, this is not an easy thing to do, particularly someone who has a lot of the pressure that he’s feeling right now.”
Bush officially kicked off his campaign Monday afternoon in Miami, becoming the newest candidate vying for the Republican presidential nomination.
Santorum made the comments during a brief campaign stop in Montgomery while here for his son’s field training graduation at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base. The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said “the more the merrier” in the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates.
Santorum won Alabama’s presidential primary in 2012 and said he believes he can win the state again in 2016.
He joked that the GOP primary already has “265 candidates.”
“I think it could be a very long, long competitive primary process, and you can’t just be a one-trick pony,” Santorum said. “I mean, you can’t just win an early state and expect everything to go well.”
Santorum toured MMI Outdoor, a Montgomery-based business that designs and manufactures equipment for the military and U.S. Forest Service firefighters.
MMI Outdoor CEO David Cobb said he was “pleasantly surprised” about Santorum’s visit.
Cobb said he hasn’t decided which candidate he’ll support for president but would support Santorum if he wins the Republican primary.
He said he’s looking for a candidate who “uses sound economic principles.”
“You tax what you want to discourage; you don’t tax productivity, and that’s what we do,” Cobb said. “It’s hurt my ability to hire people and grow this company.
Santorum said he opposes the “fast-track” trade bill in Congress that would allow President Barack Obama to finalize a Pacific trade agreement.
“If we had a president that would actually abide by the law, stick to what trade deals are supposed to be about, and not use trade deals to further other goals, then I’d be more supportive,” he said.
Santorum also outlined his plan for raising the federal minimum wage, which he said should be increased by 50 cents each year for three years to bring the minimum hourly wage to $8.75 from $7.25.
“It’s hard to say you have a minimum wage when hardly anyone gets paid the minimum wage,” he said. “Minimum wage is supposed to be just that, to make sure there is a little distance between the floor and what workers are paid and right now there isn’t.”
