Mary Matalin, former presidential adviser and Republican strategist, helped Santorum kick off a series of outreach breakfasts in central Pennsylvania in June and encouraged women to use their cellphones to receive text messages from the campaign. "From keeping women's docs in PA to allowing parents the freedom to work from home, Rick Santorum is leading 4 women," says one of the text messages.

Many women's rights advocates consider Santorum, known for his staunchly conservative views on abortion rights and family values, a pariah. Santorum himself has acknowledged such criticism. At one of his recent female outreach breakfasts in June, he told a room of about 50 women at Central Pennsylvania College: "I know I get a lot of flak for not being great . . . on women's issues," according to local press reports.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, says Santorum's effort to win over women is a smart strategy that President Bush also used to help narrow Sen. John Kerry's lead among female voters. Santorum's voting "record is very antiwomen, but most people are not politically connected and don't know his positions, so they listen to what he has to say about the issues they care about," says Gandy.

Santorum's Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, is not adored by women's advocates either because he opposes abortion. Larry Smar, spokesman for the Casey campaign, says Casey has also been holding a number of round tables for women across Pennsylvania to show that he's the better choice. "It's fitting that Santorum announced his outreach program with a text messaging campaign," says Smar. "His list of women's accomplishments can fit on a cellphone screen." –Danielle Knight