Outside a Christian store in the middle of a maze of suburban strip malls, Grace Rozelle has no doubt about what matters to her in the Republican primary battle for Michigan.
"Abortion is the really big thing for me. It has always been extremely important because of my faith," explained the 69-year-old retired schoolteacher. "I love Jesus and he created all of us."
Rozelle was standing on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, just a few streets away from the Mars Hill Bible Church, an evangelical mega-church built out of a converted shopping mall. Such displays of religious conviction are usually not seen as vital to Michigan's political landscape, which is more typically dominated by heavy industry and struggling city economies like Detroit and Flint.
But Rick Santorum is changing all that.
The former Pennsylvania senator has surged into contention in the 2012 race on the back of a stunning hat-trick of victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. He has banded together religious social conservatives and Tea Party supporters, creating a powerful challenge to frontrunner Mitt Romney in national polls. It has also seen him catapult into the lead in Michigan, a state that only weeks ago Detroit-born Romney assumed was virtually guaranteed. One Michigan poll had Santorum ahead by 15 points, and the last four surveys all show him maintaining a lead.
Now if Santorum can beat Romney in Michigan on February 28, he would deal a hugely damaging blow to the former Massachusetts governor's campaign, and achieve something few experts ever believed possible: become a real contender for the Republican nomination. "It is absolutely going to be a competitive race in Michigan now," said Stu Sandler, a top Republican strategist in the state. » | Paul Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan | Thursday, February 16, 2012
