After graduating with an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, Santorum worked in the office of Pennsylvania Senator Jacob Coyle Dorman Jr. as an administrative assistant for a year. He left to work for the Pennsylvania Senate Transportation Committee as Director for the next five years. During the period, Santorum studied for his law degree at the Dickinson School of Law.
After graduating and passing his bar, he joined Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC, a law firm whose biggest client was the World Wrestling Federation (now known as the World Wrestling Entertainment).
After spending four years with them, Santorum, already inflicted with the political bug while interning for the Senate campaign of John Heinze during his college days, decided to contest the Pennsylvania House of Representative seat. Santorum pulled off a major upset, defeating 7-time incumbent Dough Walgreen.
As his term approached its end, Santorum took another step forward and contested the state’s Senate seat. He engineered another upset, defeating the incumbent, Harris Wofford. He repeated the feat four years later by defeating Democrat Ron Klink. A second reelection attempt in 2004 ended in disaster, as Santorum lost by a massive 18 point margin to Bob Casey Jr. – the biggest losing margin in a Senate election in the last 30 years.
Following that, Santorum became a contributor to Fox News, and was a regular speaker in the Republican speaking circuit. He also co-hosted a nationally-syndicated radio show, ‘Morning In America’, and continued his fellowship with The Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group.
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