ABSTRACT
In the 2012 Republican Party primaries House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Rick Santorum both laid claim to their party’s nomination for the presidency in part by tapping into the American rhetoric of prophetic legitimacy. While both failed to win the nomination, each demonstrated the characteristics and relevance of the American style of politicized prophecy. In doing so, they followed in a long line of candidates for the highest national office in their use of the language, the metaphors, and the allusions that are inherent in this distinctive way of gaining public acclamation. And in the process, they kept alive a source of legitimacy their successor nominee could capitalize on just four years later.
