In an exclusive interview Wednesday afternoon with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who came in second to Mitt Romney in the battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, announced today that he is “ready” for a second shot at the White House.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Santorum told Stephanopoulos. “To come back home, to be at a manufacturing facility, to really reconnect to what I grew up with and understood to be an America that worked, that worked for middle-income families, that created stable neighborhoods and strong families — when you see all these reports coming out, one after another, from the far left and the far right talking about how the middle of America is hollowing out and the jobs just aren’t there for the 74 percent of Americans who don’t have a college degree, families are breaking down.”

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Santorum went on to tell the anchor that this time around things will be different because he learned a lot of lessons from the 2012 cycle — such as the importance of doing well in Iowa — and because he’ll have more money this time, allowing him campaign on a larger scale than he was able to in 2012.

During his campaign launch Wednesday at Penn United Technologies in Cabot, Pennsylvania, Santorum was surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic supporters from 32 states who believe in his campaign’s focus on restoring “the American dream for hardworking families.”

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‘I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for President of the United States.’

“We cannot sit idly by as big-government politicians make it harder for our workers and then turn around and claim them for losing jobs overseas. Working families don’t need another president tied to big government. Today is the day we are going to begin fighting back,” Santorum told the crowd. “I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for President of the United States.”

“I offer a bold vision for America, one that’s clear and conservative, that has plans for reform and a proven track record in my time in service,” Santorum proposed. The speech focused on Santorum’s goals should he secure the Republican nomination and become the next President. Santorum’s plans include reforming the tax code to be “simple, fare, and flat,” strengthening the “first economy– the American family,” getting rid of Common Core, and using Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” philosophy to defeat ISIS.

Santorum took several shots at his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton, whom he said has called for “a massive influx in unskilled labor” purely because she wants votes. “Their [Clinton and big businesses] priorities are profits and power. My priority is you, the American worker,” Santorum said as the crowd cheered.

“We must take back America from those who seek to deny us our God-given right of life and liberty. I will,” Santorum concluded.

#related#The former Pennsylvania senator will face an uphill battle, but Santorum’s no stranger to a tough fight. Last time around he was able to snag first place in the Iowa caucuses, which launched him into the national spotlight and led him to a second-place finish overall.

But this time around Santorum is facing an even larger field of candidates — nearly twenty Republicans are expected to run. Not only will he be battling for time at events and on TV, but also at GOP presidential debates.

Following Fox News’s decision to limit their first debate this August to only ten participants, Santorum ripped the conservative news network. “If you’re a United States senator, if you’re a governor, if you’re a woman who ran a Fortune 500 company, and you’re running a legitimate campaign for president, then you should have a right to be on stage with everybody else,” the former senator said in an interview with National Journal. “So the idea that we’re going to arbitrarily — and it’s arbitrary, someone at 1.15 [percent] is in, someone at 1.14 [percent] is out — that to me is not a rational way.”

— Julia Porterfield is an intern at National Review, editor-in-chief of Red Millennial, and a junior at Regent University.