Richard John Santorum, Attorney

Rick Santorum is a lawyer, author, and politician. He was a US senator for the state of Pennsylvania between 1995 and 2007. In 2012, he was a candidate for the presidential nomination. He ran on behalf of the Republican Party, but the nomination went to fellow Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who Santorum eventually endorsed.

Santorum, a conservative politician, was born in Winchester, VA. His family later moved to Pennsylvania, and he attended Pennsylvania State University as an undergraduate. There, Santorum was head of the school's Republican chapter. He received a degree in political science in 1980, followed by an MBA in 1981. In 1986, he earned a JD from the Dickinson School of Law.   

While many politicians practiced law before switching to politics, Santorum was active in politics before starting on a law path. He volunteered for Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania in the 1970s, then directed the Pennsylvania Senate's local government committee between 1981 and 1984. Santorum practiced law with the firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart until 1990, when he won an election to the US House of Representatives.

Santorum represented the 18th congressional district of Pennsylvania starting in 1990. In office, he supported legislation prohibiting employers from firing striking employees. He also opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Five years after serving as Pennsylvania's senator, Santorum moved to the United States Senate. As a US senator, Rick Santorum supported responsible tax and spending. He introduced a bill in 2005 prohibiting the National Weather Service from publishing weather data to the public for free. On the international level, he supports the War on Terror and believes Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Santorum also supports the use of torture techniques on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

In addition to serving as US senator, Rick Santorum became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in 2000. In that position, he led Senate Republican communications efforts and was a party spokesperson. Santorum ran for a third Senate term in 2006, as an unopposed member of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. He ultimately lost the race amid a sea of controversy.

The following year, Santorum joined the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. There, he directed the America's Enemies Program, which focused on reducing foreign threats to the nation. AEP targeted Venezuela, North Korea, and Russia in particular. Later that year Santorum joined Fox News as a political commentator and returned to a career in law, working for Eckert Seamans, which had firms in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Despite returning to law, Santorum maintained an interest in politics. Rumors circulated of a possible run for presidency in 2008, but Santorum abstained from the race, and instead endorsed Mitt Romney. Four years later he entered the race for president, but ended his campaign in April 2012 after losing votes in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
Dickinson School of Law, Penn State University	JD	Law School	1986
Pennsylvania State University	MBA		1981
Pennsylvania State University	BS	Political Science	1980

• It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (2005)
  American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom (2012)
  Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America that Works (2014)
  Bella’s Gift: How One Little Girl Transformed Our Family and Inspired a Nation (2015)
  
  A Senator Speaks Out on Life, Freedom, and Responsibility (2005) – A collection of Santorum’s speeches as US senator