Santorum Returns to Campaign Trail

Rick Santorum will be back on the campaign trail Monday afternoon after temporarily leaving it over the weekend to be at his ailing daughter's hospital bedside.

The GOP hopeful had been slated to appear in Florida at a rally on Sunday, two days before the state's winner-take-all primary. But he sent another one of his daughters, Elizabeth, in his stead so he could return to Pennsylvania to be with Isabella, who was rushed to the hospital on Saturday night after developing pneumonia in both lungs. She also suffers from the genetic disorder Trisomy 18.

Speaking to two town hall events via teleconference, Santorum told supporters that Isabella will remain in the intensive care unit for at least a little longer, but that her doctors were encouraged by recent improvements in her health. "We've still got a long way to go here but she has without a doubt turned the corner and we are very, very grateful," he said, according to NBC News. 

Santorum will return to the stump with a number of events on Monday and Tuesday—although not necessarily where one might expect given Florida voters head to the polls on Jan. 31. He'll hit the road for rallies in Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, and Nevada, and isn't slated to be back in the Sunshine State before Tuesday's primary. Santorum appears to be more or less throwing in the towel in Florida, where he trails heavily in the polls, and to instead be refocusing his efforts on upcoming caucus states with the belief that his brand of social conservatism will do better in nominating contests that exclude independents as opposed to open contests like Florida's.

"We want the activists of the party, the people who make up the vast part of the Republican Party, to have a say in who our nominee is, as opposed to a bunch of people who don't even identify themselves as Republicans picking our nominee," Santorum told a group of Minnesota Republicans on one of the teleconferences, noting that only registered Republicans can participate in a caucus.