Exclusive: Rick Santorum on Brody File Set: Romney Better Not Ignore Evangelicals and the Tea Party or it Could Cost Him Fall Election if He's the Nominee

In an interview at our Brody File studios on Monday Rick Santorum cautions Mitt Romney that ignoring the evangelical and Tea Party vote could cost him the election in the fall if Romney’s the nominee.

Santorum was on The Brody File set this morning in D.C. and told me, “We've seen in past elections, you need energy, you need enthusiasm, you need volunteers, you need excitement, and when you don't have that, you don't win elections."

Watch below and read the full transcription. The full interview will air on this week’s 30-minute Brody File television show.

David Brody: The evangelical vote. When Evangelicals go to the polls, and it's 50 percent or more…

Rick Santorum: We win.

Brody: You're their guy.

Santorum: I win the state.

Brody: You win the state. So, under 50 percent Romney's got issues. Well beyond that. I'm going to give it to you straight. Romney has made no play for Evangelicals or for the Tea Party. You have. Gonna hurt him, potentially? Late, maybe not necessarily late in the primary race, he's doing well so far.

Santorum: Well, he's doing well so far, because you have three candidates who are dividing the vote. And, hopefully as this race continues on, in fact in Louisiana, we were able to get almost 50 percent of the vote against three candidates, which is pretty unusual. We did it in Kansas. It's hard when you have two other candidates out there pulling votes.

But Romney has made a decision is he is running as the establishment candidate in a primary, and you heard him say they're going to hit the re-set button, take out the Etch A Sketch, shake up their policies and run as a whole new candidate. And that candidate is not going to excite the conservative base, whether it's Tea Party or Evangelical and he's just saying, look, they have no choice but to vote for me.

They're not going to vote for Obama, so they'll come out and vote for me, and I'll go after moderate voters. We've seen in past elections, you need energy, you need enthusiasm, you need volunteers, you need excitement, and when you don't have that, you don't win elections.

Brody: So, you'll keep the Etch A Sketch around?

Santorum: "I"ll keep the Etch A Sketch around."