Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) kicked off his presidential campaign Monday… Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) kicked off his presidential campaign Monday morning.

Santorum, a Pitt and Penn State University alumnus, made the announcement at the Somerset County Courthouse. After visiting early primary states several times over the past few months and launching an exploratory committee, Santorum officially entered the contest for the Republican nomination during a speech broadcast nationally.

Most national polls have Santorum at single digits — in some, less than five percent of Republicans said they would vote for him. All the major polling done in the first three primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have the former senator in single digits.

Santorum used the majority of his speech to criticize the current administration and their handling of the economy, gas prices, spending and the devaluing of American currency and culture. He also criticized President Obama’s health care reform and the freedom that he believes the government is taking away from Americans.

He said that the reform law makes U.S. citizens buy something, which will create a dependency on the government for every single American, not just those who are old and sick.

“They want to hook you, not free you,” Santorum said, regarding the new national health care plan. “They believe in themselves, not you.”

Santorum said that over the past 20 months, the most common question he was asked by the public was “are you running?”. The answer he always gave was “no I’m not running, I’m walking,” Santorum said at the announcement.

He said it took him so long to announce his bid because he wanted to get out and talk to Americans all across the country to make sure that what he was feeling was shared by the people.

“In 2008, a wearied public looked to elect a president who they could believe in. That president took that faith that the American public gave him and wrecked the economy, centralized power in D.C. and robbed people of their freedom,” Santorum said. “I believe now that Americans are not looking for someone that they can believe in, they’re looking for a president that believes in them.”

Santorum said that he is ready to step up and “do what has to be done for the next generation.”

Santorum graduated from Penn State in 1980, followed by earning an MBA from Pitt in 1981 and then graduated from Penn State’s School of Law in 1986.

He went on to hold positions in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 at the age of 32 and served in the U.S. Senate from 1995-2007, before being defeated by Democrat Bob Casey in 2006.

The former Senator joins former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Texas Representative Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gringrich, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and businessman Herman Cain in the race for the Republican nomination.