Santorum 2012

[Samof94]

What happens if he wins the nomination that year as he gets evangelical support???  Let’s say Romney doesn’t run due to a family emergency involving a terminally ill relative.

[KaiserDave]

Santorum loses just as badly to Obama, he might have a better shot at Florida.

[Fuzzy Bear]

He would have lost at Romney's level.

The GOP lost in 2012 because their nominating contest was a "Who's the most conservative?" game.  Mitt Romney won that contest; he ran the most ideologically conservative campaign in my lifetime (moreso than Goldwater or Reagan), but he wasn't going anywhere.  Santorum would have run in that mold.  On top of that stifling mold, conservatism took a hit after the 2008 financial meltdown as being responsible for the meltdown, so Santorum may not have gotten off the mark that way.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

He would have lost at Romney's level.

The GOP lost in 2012 because their nominating contest was a "Who's the most conservative?" game.  Mitt Romney won that contest; he ran the most ideologically conservative campaign in my lifetime (moreso than Goldwater or Reagan), but he wasn't going anywhere.  Santorum would have run in that mold.  On top of that stifling mold, conservatism took a hit after the 2008 financial meltdown as being responsible for the meltdown, so Santorum may not have gotten off the mark that way.

Mitt Romney let himself be dragged right by the people he was running against and as I put it in other posts, this boxed him in and left him no where to expand his support base.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I don't think Santorum would have done as well as Romney in some high end secular suburbs, but on the other end he might have done better in say NE PA, and other working class areas. I don't see Santorum actually being able to do what Trump did, because his foreign policy was too interventionist and he also had taken the social conservatism so far that it also would have limited his reach in secular working class areas as well, to an extent that Trump didn't have such problems.

[Adjective-Statement]

President Barack Obama (D-IL) / Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) ✓
Fmr. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) / Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA)

[Chips]

If Santorum had a solid campaign he could've won with Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and possibly Iowa, Colorado and Maine-02.

[NewYorkExpress]

Based on his Iowa Caucus "victory" Santorum wins Iowa.

Other than that the 2012 map is the same.

Barack Obama/Joe Biden 53%
Rick Santorum/Sam Brownback 46%

[Samof94]

His last name being a joke made by comedians might hurt him.

[Alben Barkley]

Why do people think he'd win Florida? I don't think he's a better fit for Florida than Romney.

[here2view]

He does worse than Romney IMO

[BigVic]

2012 + NC

[MATTROSE94]

If Santorum had a solid campaign he could've won with Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and possibly Iowa, Colorado and Maine-02.

You are probably right. I think that Rick Santorum could have won if he ran a campaign similar in substance to Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns (minus the attack on Hillary Clinton, racial dog whistles, and xenophobia of course). I would say that he would have handled the Coronavirus pandemic much better than Donald Trump as well and would largely be considered an "average" President overall assuming that he moderated his positions on social issues once he assumed office.