Santorum Urges Pregnant Woman to ‘Hang in There’ for Him
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Jay LaPrete/Getty Images(OSHKOSH, Wis.) — Ahead of Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary, Rick Santorum is scrambling to gather votes, even urging a pregnant woman not to go into labor before she can vote for him.
“Don’t go into labor before election, before tomorrow. OK? Hang in there for me,” Santorum said to the woman after a rally here.
“Will do,” she said to him.
In his speech to a crowd of under one hundred people, Santorum credited voter turnout as the key to his 11 wins so far in the 2012 campaign. He said Mitt Romney has won in states where turnout was low.
“That’s what I’m asking all of the folks, all of you here in Wisconsin to do. Go out and work hard over the last 24 hours. Give us a chance,” Santorum said. “We’re not going to win this election because we can spend more money. We’ve never won any state because we’ve spent more money than the other side. We have been outspent in every single state, in some cases badly. But here’s how we won. In every state we won, in every state we won, turnout was up over the previous four years because folks in small town and rural America, conservatives, Tea Party activists, came out and understood how important this race was and they went out and voted in bigger numbers.
“In every state Governor Romney’s won, turnout has been down because of the overwhelming number of negative ads driving down turnout. And by driving down turnout and beating the other opponents up, whether it was me or Perry or Gingrich or Bachmann, and I don’t know who it was, driving down turnout. That’s how he’s been able to win. You think that’s a winning formula for the fall? Think we’ll be able to outspend our opponent 5, 10, 20 to one? No. So that’s why small town and rural America have been out there working for us.”
Santorum said officials are predicting low voter turnout across the state, so he encouraged the crowd to “Take the day off tomorrow. It’s on me. And spend some time getting folks to the polls.”
After the event, Santorum was approached by a man who said a super PAC supporting him has bombarded his household with robocalls, which has made him reconsider whether he will vote for Santorum. Santorum insisted it was not his campaign that made those calls.
“You haven’t gotten any calls from Romney?” Santorum asked
“Two,” the man said.
“Really? Because I’ve heard just the opposite. People are telling me that they are getting robocalls more from Romney and none from us,” Santorum said.
“You must have some unusual vortex that you end up on my list for a lot of ways,” Santorum later said. “Well I’d appreciate your help irrespective of the robocalls.”
“Well, if you could do something about it. I’m not the only one who feels that way. It’s getting insane,” the man said. “I’m right on the fence between the two of you and I’m going to have to reconsider. I mean, you seem like a nice guy. I like your conservative values and all, but, jeez, it’s difficult.”
“Well, don’t answer your phone!” Santorum said with a smile.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio