Santorum says he ran out of money

Rick Santorum said Thursday that he ended his presidential bid because he ran out of money, his campaign was in debt and he would have been unable to air any advertising in Pennsylvania.

“Money isn’t everything in politics, but you do have to have enough to be successful, and we were reaching a point where we were frankly not in the position,” Santorum said in his first interview since suspending his campaign Tuesday, on the “Today’s Issues” show on the American Family Radio Network. “We simply didn’t have the resources to compete going forward.”

The remarks were the most direct Santorum has made about why he dropped out of the race two weeks before a critical primary in his home state, Pennsylvania. Previously, he alluded to his seriously ill youngest child who was recently hospitalized, as well as the allocation of delegates in upcoming contests.

In the interview with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Santorum said his campaign organization had grown and had been “just burning through cash” in recent contests, while donations slowed to a “trickle,” leaving the campaign in debt for the first time and for an amount that Santorum said he was not comfortable with.