Republican Rick Santorum, who fell short in his 2012 presidential bid, launched another run for the White House on Wednesday with a promise to restore the economic power of middle-class American workers.

Santorum, 57, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, emphasized his working-class roots as he formally opened his long-shot 2016 presidential bid near his childhood home in Cabot, in western Pennsylvania.

Looking to build support beyond the social and religious conservatives who bolstered his 2012 campaign, Santorum said "big government" and "big business" had left behind American workers.

"Today is the day we are going to begin to fight back," he said. "As middle America's hollowing out we can't sit idly by. Working families don't need another president tied to big government or big money."

Santorum promised to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, back a flat tax and crack down on illegal immigration that he says has robbed jobs from American workers. He also vowed to cut federal spending and revoke "every executive order and regulation that costs Americans jobs."

In the 2012 race, Santorum won Iowa's kickoff contest and 10 other state contests with strong support from voters drawn to his social and religious conservatism and wary of the more business-oriented Mitt Romney.

Santorum outlasted other White House hopefuls to become the last remaining challenger to Romney, who ultimately captured the 2012 Republican nomination.