It won't be surprising for Santorum to lose his own state. It's happened before.

[alp227]

RealClearPolitics' latest projection has a dead heat between Romney and former US Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum in the Penn primary right now.

If Santorum loses his own state, he'll be gone in no time unless he's willing to play his cards in a brokered convention in August. However, primary candidates have lost their home states before:
- 2000 (R) primary, Maryland: Alan Keyes came in third place in his native Maryland on Super Tuesday behind John McCain and George W. Bush. However, Keyes had no experience holding any elected office in Maryland but rather was a diplomat and failed US Senate candidate in Maryland and is so cuckoo that he went third party in 2008.
- 1992 (D) primary, California: Former Gov. Jerry Brown finished second behind eventual nominee and election winner Bill Clinton in the final contest of the season. (Brown also lost CA in the 1980 primary but won Michigan that year.)
- 1988 (R) primary, Virginia: Televangelist Pat Robertson (like Keyes, super-crazy plus no elected office experience) finished third behind George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. However, Robertson's father, Absalom Robertson, was a US Senator from Virginia.
- 1988 (D) primary, Illinois: Although Rev. Jesse Jackson won the caucus in South Carolina, the state where he grew up as a child, he lost the primary in his then-residence state of Illinois to Sen. Paul M. Simon. (Jackson also won SC in the '84 caucus but lost IL to eventual nominee Walter Mondale.)
- 1980 (R) primary, Texas: George H.W. Bush lost the TX primary to Ronald Reagan by 4 points but eventually was picked as Reagan's running mate. Although Bush served in the House of Representatives for Houston during the late '60s, most of his political experience as of 1980 was as a CIA director and foreign ambassador.

Santorum has expressed interest in being Romney's running mate. Indeed there have been instances of the primary runner up becoming the running mate, see John Edwards in 2004 or Bush in 1980.

[HopeHoops]

1. He's not well-liked here, even by hardcore Republicans.

[polichick]

6. Sure isn't - I fondly recall the "Man-on-Dog" campaign that helped...

...run him out of town!

[whistler162]

2. Well he wasn't on the Virginia ballot

so he lost it already!

Or do you mean his former state?

[timesup]

3. He's a douche and PA is not a southern state, YA'll!

It had to be said.

8)

[madinmaryland]

4. You lost me when you said "Alan Keyes". He actually finished third in this state.

Funny, but he actually looks sane compared to Andy Harris from the 1st US Congressional district here.

[Lugnut]

5. PA is not his own state.

He owns a house here but his family doesn't actually reside here. It galls me that nobody will nail him down about where he actually lives - Leesburg VA.