The Hill News

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said he would be fine with winning anywhere in the top three in the Iowa caucuses.

"Well, I feel like if we can crack the top three that would be great," Santorum said Tuesday according to CNN, just ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday evening.

The former Pennsylvania senator has recently jumped in Iowa polls to a virtual tie in the Republican race there, joining Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Santorum has previously said he would drop out of the race if he did not perform well in Iowa.

"If I finish dead last behind the pack I'm going to pack up and go home but I don't think that's going to happen," Santorum said in late December.

Santorum has been campaigning hard in Iowa and picked up the endorsements of, among others, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) and Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the social conservative group The Family Leader. Vander Plaats's endorsement in particular was a coup for Santorum, who has been angling himself as the preferable candidate for social conservatives since early on in his bid.