that's more than twice the support that's being shown for congressman ron paul and former senator rick sanatorium who are died at second place with 16% each. newt gingrich is in fourth with 12%. south carolina voters go to the polls next saturday. now, rick san sanatorium's request comes from evangelicals that support his candidacy. how, how the religious vote could shake up that tight race. the news from texas could not have come at batter time, winning the blessing of evangelical leaders could be just the booth the former senator needs. >> they've looked at what we've been able to accomplish during this primary season, but they looked at the track record of someone that's been a strong consistent voice across the board on all the issues. >> sanatorium who almost toppled mitt romney in iowa with the help of born again christian voters fell to fifth in less religious new hampshire. since then he's been struggling to remain a serious contender, even in south carolina where more than half of gop voters call themselves evangelical christians. the elite are now pinning their hopes and prayers on the

wire many candidates looking south instead-why did the police show up at rick sanatoriums event today -- rick santorum's >> you are watching abc-7 news at 6:00. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we continue now with a countdown to the new hampshire primary. >> the candidates are gearing up for debate ahead of the primary. many are already looking to the next big event in the election cycle, the south carolina primary. that is where the polls are seeing some major changes. we have the latest. >> if i was set the tone and new hampshire is next -- iowa set the tone and new hampshire is next, why are so many focusing on the south already? the reason? they have to throw mitt romney off course. rick santorum has clearly thrown this race for a loop. now finding a spot near the top and drawing crowds so big a town hall was halted due to a fire hazard. there is no arguing who is still the leader, is the one being attacked from all sides, mitt romney. >> imagine him debating obama. president obama is going to laugh at him. >> of course corporations are not peo

to give you a sense, rick sanatorium in an effort to try to touch as many corners of this state today chartered a jet to make five separate stops across south carolina. after deflecting attacks from all sides in last night's contentious debate -- >> bain swept in, they picked that company over. >> reporter: mitt romney planned to build momentum with a high-energy rally here in south carolina. but the front-runner was greeted by an unusually small crowd. and after pressure last night to release his tax returns -- >> there have been some attacks on me. we cannot fire our nominee in september. we need to know now. >> reporter: romney, who opponents tried to portray as rich and out of touch, appeared to be knocked off message, promising to share his returns in april, and also disclosing that he pays 15% in income tax, a figure not uncommon for many wealthy americans. >> my income comes overwhelmingly from investments in the past rather than ordinary income. rather than earned annual income. and then i get speakers fees from time to time but not very much. >> reporter: romney's financial d

ron paul along with a sinking michele bachmann and governor rick perry stopped by fox news. sanatorium visited meet the press. >> i've always relied when that crunch times comes in the last two weeks, it's when we'll start to pick up and it's what's happened. >> reporter: on tuesday night, iowa voters will gather in small groups, listen to final pitches, then decide among themselves who their votes go to. and those can easily change until the last minute, said iowa's governor on fox news sunday. >> it's a wide open race and very fluid. any of the candidates potentially could win here. >> reporter: polls show two in five iowaens could change their mind. some say sanatorium's rise is because of others' falls. >> typically it comes on the backs of others collapse. here it's gingrich and bachmann. >> reporter: millions have been sent on pill ads in iowa. gingrich has been the target of most of the negative ones. >> have more baggage than the airlines. >> reporter: face the nation asked a gingrich supporter if romney should call for negative ads to stop. >> i'm not going to sit here and try

rick santorum. let's go to cnn's joe johns right now. he's covering sanatorium's surge. he's joining us from des moines. i think rick santorum believed in himself. not a whole lot of others, joe, did. but it's been quite amazing over these past few days how well he's done. >> reporter: that's true, wolf. you know, more than half of the republicans who participated in this process the last time around viewed themselves as evangelical christians. born again christians. so it might be a little risque to compare this process to a seduction, but rick santorum has gone a long way. he says the other candidates in the race are speed dating, and he says what he's been doing is a courtship. >> i have done literally 358 or 359 town hall meetings in the state of iowa. we've been to all 99 counties, and we weren't speed dating. >> reporter: rick santorum's polling numbers, his surge in the race for iowa, is starting to look like love. though the question is, what took so long for a staunch conservative who's been courting the state for months to finally get some traction? >> the crowd

ron paul and rick santorum are skipping the sunshine state today. sanatoriumhome in pennsylvania. ron paul is in maine. why maine? >> it's almost 80 degrees in florida where three of the republican presidential candidates have been campaigning. why is ron paul here in maine? we'll let him explain. >> -- that i'm not important. we have some enthusiastic supporters in maine and we wanted to come and share with you. so thank you very much. >> those delegates dr. paul is talking about, 24 here this maine. he's competing heavily in states like maine, like nevada, like colorado, like minnesota. he stands to do pretty well in those contests. he's pretty much seated the florida primary that's coming up on tuesday to his rivals. but he's hoping up to rack up delegates through the caucus process in order to win the nomination. but should he not win the nomination, he could play a prominent role at the republican convention with those delegates. one last thing, congressman paul also met with governor paula paige, the governor of the state himself a prom then tea partier.

rick santorum. let's go to cnn's joe johns right now. he's covering sanatorium's surge. oining us from des moines. i think rick santorum believed in himself. not a whole lot of others, joe, did. but it's been quite amazing over these past few days how well he's done. >> reporter: that's true, wolf. you know, more than half of the republicans who participated in this process the last time around viewed themselves as evangelical christians. born again christians. so it might be a little risque to compare this process to a seduction, but rick santorum has gone a long way. he says the other candidates in the race are speed dating, and he says what he's been doing is a courtship. >> i have done literally 358 or 359 town hall meetings in the state of iowa. we've been to all 99 counties, and we weren't speed dating. >> reporter: rick santorum's polling numbers, his surge in the race for iowa, is starting to look like love. though the question is, what took so long for a staunch conservative who's been courting the state for months to finally get some traction? >> the crowds are