A Rick Santorum precinct captain is blaming a pen with no ink for not voting for the former Pennsylvania senator Monday night in the Iowa caucuses.

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“You didn’t vote for him?” MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes asked the man, showing a tally of votes with an “X” by Santorum’s name.

“As I was writing down [his name], my pen ran out of ink,” the man responded. “I was like, I can’t just ask somebody for a new pen while I’m doing this.”

“Buddy, you’re the Santorum dude,” Hayes responded in disbelief.

“I know, I know,” the Santorum supporter replied. “Failure to launch, failure to launch.”

Hayes posted the exchange in a Twitter video titled “Here’s why Rick Santorum got zero votes at the GOP caucus we were at tonight.”

Santorum, who won Iowa’s caucuses in 2012, struggled for similar traction during the 2016 presidential campaign. The former Pennsylvania senator received 1 percent support in Monday night's caucuses.

He remains a long-shot in the GOP nominating battle overall, with less than 1 percent nationwide support in polls on average.