Former Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum has gone on the stump for struggling Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in his tight race with Democratic challenger Paul Davis, saying the "future of the free world" depends on the election.
"This race is important not just for Kansans, it's important for the country," Santorum said Monday at a rally and screening of the 1940 film "Knute Rockne All American,"
the Wichita Eagle reported.
The movie featured a young Ronald Reagan in the role that gave him his nickname of "The Gipper."
The governor, one of the most conservative in the country,
The Wall Street Journal notes, has cut income taxes to spur economic growth, but the move has caused a steep drop in state revenues and not yet delivered the promised economic surge.
And that's cost him key Republican support, The Journal reports.
On Tuesday, more than 100 Republican former officeholders, elected officials and past party officials endorsed Davis in a distressing sign of re-election troubles for Brownback, The Journal reported.
"We are deeply concerned by the direction Sam Brownback is taking Kansas," said Wint Winter, a former state senator who supports Davis. "We are all Republicans. But we will always be Kansans first."
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted its prediction of the race from "leaning Republican'' to tossup, The Journal reported.
But at Monday's rally, Santorum lauded Brownback, the Wichita Eagle reported.
"The left has targeted Sam," Santorum said. "The New York Times has no idea where Kansas is, but they've written several articles hammering Sam Brownback, because Sam is a descendant of the American Revolution.
"This man (Brownback) loves this country and cherishes the principles and believes those principles can work, not just in Kansas, but can work to help rebirth a great civilization in America," Santorum said of Brownback, with whom he served in the U.S. Senate.
"And he came back to Kansas because he believes like I do that Washington isn't solving a whole lot of problems these days, but Kansas can. Kansas can — it can do the things that Sam has done — cut government, cut taxes, support small businesses and the family, the building block of our civilization."
"The left doesn't want a successful governor doing big things that are conservative, so they've come after him," Santorum added.
Santorum urged the crowd to plaster their cars with Browback stickers and "light up" social media, the Eagle reported.
"OK, I'm sorry, the future of the free world is at stake, and you're worried about it sticking to your car," he chided.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.