New Hampshire Primary 2012 Results: Rick Santorum Finishes Fifth

MANCHESTER, NH -- Rick Santorum finished in fifth place Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary election, earning only 9.3% of the vote. The showing was a significant drop-off in momentum after essentially tying Mitt Romney in the Iowa Caucus last week.

"We knew it would be tough...we built this campaign here in New Hampshire in just a short period of time," Santorum told a small group of supporters after most of the election results had been reported.

Although Santorum didn't expect to do well in New Hampshire -- a state where Romney was predicted to win by a large margin and where a strong libertarian composition meant a robust turnout for Ron Paul -- finishing below 10% must have been a disappointment.

On Tuesday morning, Santorum was already feeling pessimistic about the primary; he told a group of reporters that he'd "be content" with a double-digit finish. But, as ABC News White House Correspondent Jake Tapper tweeted last night, Santorum has made more campaign trips to New Hampshire than any other candidate, aside from Jon Huntsman who did heavy campaigning there while ignoring the state of Iowa.

Unlike some of his rivals, Santorum didn't spend any money on advertising in New Hampshire. Instead, his campaign plans to use what's left of its remaining cash reserves in South Carolina. At The Derryfield restaurant, Mike Biundo, Santorum's campaign manager, said they planned to spend $1 million on advertising in South Carolina, a state where Santorum is expected to have a much stronger showing.

Ever since his stunning performance in Iowa and the huge influx of donations that followed it, Santorum's campaign has faced organizational problems. An event he held in Amherst, N.H., just a few days before the primary was disrupted by Occupy Wall Street protestors. Santorum was then swarmed by a raucous, megaphone-wielding mob in the state capitol, and booed off the stage by a crowd of college students following a heated Q&A on gay marriage.

Santorum has sought to persuade the nation that Iowa won't be the climax of his campaign. After being compared to Mike Huckabee, the social conservative who won the Iowa Caucus in 2008, Santorum claimed that being from near New Hampshire gave him an advantage that Huckabee never had. Clearly, it wasn't enough: Santorum finished lower in New Hampshire than Huckabee did.

While Santorum is expected to do better in South Carolina on Jan. 21, David Catanese at Politico points out that the former Pennsylvania congressman hasn't set foot there since early November.




Video by HuffPost's Hunter Stuart

Comments

[donsheryleths]

11:26 PM on 01/11/2012

As Americans, we do not anoint Kings; we go through a political process to elect a President.
Let the debates, the ads, the vetting, the disagreements, the hard battles begin. This is the
full scope of the American Campaign. This is WHY America is different from other countries.
As for me and my house, we will support and campaign for the stronger, more experienced,
evangelical, conservative candidate. Lets let them go through the American Electoral Process
and NOT PROCLAIM A KING, so quickly.

[HHeeze]

02:58 PM on 01/11/2012

Rick Santorum is not fit to be POTUS the people have spoken. Time to slime off Rick bye bye.

[iknowscottyknows]

02:25 PM on 01/11/2012

No miniscule minority's private behavior should be given government sanction simply because they insist.

Especially when they insist no one else has a say in the matter.

You want the government involved in your private life? Then you've just begged me to become involved in your private life. I am the government.

[Floridafish]

02:23 PM on 01/11/2012

The bottom line is Americans like sex and Rick Santorum doesn't. That alone was enough to get him booted from the primary. You can't slam people's sex lives in this country and still get elected anymore.

[Durt Bagg]

01:47 PM on 01/11/2012

Aytatollah Rick Shall Rise Again!

[rst2536]

01:43 PM on 01/11/2012

FOR RICK SANTORUM

He has apocalyptic vision
And always got approving smiles
Whenever he made an incision
Into the liberal men of wiles.
He has an artful adaptation
Of how they’d suffer condemnation:
If not conservative and white,
They’d be sent to forever’s blight.
And though atrocious in expression,
He has a kind of austere charm
Whenever he spread his alarm.
He advocated for repression
Of any who would not adore
His concept of a holy war.

Please see more at http://poemsonaffairsofstate.blogspot.com/

[houseofd]

01:37 PM on 01/11/2012

Go ahead and spout it Ricky, Evangelical Social Conservatives are never serious candidates, and you've never had a chance. Enjoy.

[opinioned1]

01:35 PM on 01/11/2012

If your best and only hope is a pack of G,G,G, Iowa hayseeds to get any momentum going, you never had any to begin with.

[rockysparks]

01:29 PM on 01/11/2012

Poor Rick Santorum. How long will he last before his inevitable political demise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5PSN01GzWE

[NWinTweener]

01:21 PM on 01/11/2012

I am happy as heck that Sanitorium crapped out in NH. My philosophy is, Blatant Bigotry should never be rewarded Unfortunately Romneys Blatant Hypocrisy was.

[Talk2PassiveActionVital]

01:16 PM on 01/11/2012

Santorum Campaign Loses Momentum In New Hampshire

...'campaign as horse race' metaphor traps moribund media types in lame frame.

[SantaMonican]

01:07 PM on 01/11/2012

Another big government republican trying to control private behavior.

[VirginiaDreaming]

01:04 PM on 01/11/2012

Do you remember in the Iowa debates how Santorum advocated assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists? It happened yesterday, and Iran immediately accused US and Israel of being terrorist nations who carried out the assassination. This is one of the biggest reasons we need to get Rick Santorum out of the presidential race. He is not even close to the presidency, and his comments are making our country look bad, making it harder for us to defend our honor, and putting a bull's-eye on our service people in foreign deployments. We need to show the world that we are not blustering hypocrites who ignore international law and common decency when it suits our purpose, but condemn other countries when they do the same.

[Omentum]

01:04 PM on 01/11/2012

Santorum was flowing in Iowa. But ran dry in New Hampshire. He should do well in kentucKY

[realmystical]

01:01 PM on 01/11/2012

It was less than 100 years ago when women were arrested for sharing birth control and information about reproduction to women who begged to know how to stop having children that kept them in poverty or pregnancies that threatened their lives. I refuse to let a bunch of zealots and science deniers throw my children and grandchildren under this religious bus. Women, don't think you are anything but a second class citizen, just like our fellow gay Americans to today's GOP. Send them packing their eighteenth century duffle bags.