SHARONVILLE, Ohio -- GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum told a crowd of Hamilton County Republicans on Monday they should throw their support behind a trustworthy candidate.
Santorum, one of about a dozen Republican trying to get the party's nomination, spoke to about 100 people at the Sharonville Convention Center. Last week, fellow candidate Dr. Ben Carson was also there.
"The person you need to support is someone that you can trust -- someone who’s going to go to Washington DC and does what they say they're going to do and has a track record to do it -- track record to stand and fight for the principles they say they're going to fight for, and —- secondly, and very importantly -— win," Santorum said.
He also touted his experience working in welfare reform during his time in Congress.
"I would suggest that if you want the combination of someone who's going to change Washington DC, look to someone who actually did change Washington DC," he said. "I was the author of welfare reform."
A former Pennsylvania senator, Santorum has had some success going against the mainstream GOP in the past. In 2012, he narrowly won in Iowa after a grassroots campaign that included driving himself around the entire state in a pickup truck.
This time around, Santorum has generally been polling toward the bottom of the packed field of Republican candidates. He finished with less than 1 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, coming in 12th place.
Carson was ranked second, while business mogul Donald Trump held onto the top spot. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who campaigned over the weekend in Iowa, ranked ninth.
