When Rick Perry met with diners in Lexington, S.C., earlier this week, he insisted that his last-place finish in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary didn’t matter, telling the group that South Carolina, not the Granite State, would crown the Republican presidential nominee.
Yet, even though the stakes could not be higher for the Texas governor, Perry is not faring much better in South Carolina. If Perry doesn’t finish at or near the top of the field in the heavily evangelical state in the Jan. 21 primary, his campaign may be over.
Palmetto State voters so far have not embraced Perry with any enthusiasm and are instead gravitating toward Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, according to a new Insider Advantage poll. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had 23 percent in the poll while Gingrich, the former House speaker, had 21 percent.
Perry, despite his faith-based campaign platform and history as a successful Southern governor, could muster only 5 percent in the poll, even after he spent days barnstorming the state and blanketing the airwaves with campaign ads.
“I think there is a sense among Republicans around the country that set in over the last couple of months that Rick Perry was out of contention,” said Ron Faucheux, president of the Clarus Research Group.
Faucheux said Perry hurt himself after his poor showing in Iowa when he announced that he was heading home to reassess his candidacy — even though Perry reversed himself hours later and announced that he was skipping New Hampshire and heading straight for South Carolina.
“It created a sense that he was going to get out of the race,” Faucheux said. “It kind of looks to people like he is not even a candidate anymore.”
Republican strategists in South Carolina said Perry must more clearly distinguish himself from the rest of the pack.
Perry is trying to cut into Romney’s dominance in the state, which has a nearly 10 percent unemployment rate, by criticizing Romney’s time as the head of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm that bought companies and shut down some of them, costing workers their jobs. Perry recently labeled Romney a “vulture capitalist.”
That tactic isn’t likely to win Perry new voters, South Carolina GOP strategist Wesley Donehue said.
“So many people want to be for him,” Donehue said. “But he just hasn’t given them a reason to cross over.”
Perry’s campaign suffered a blow this week when a top South Carolina GOP fundraiser backing him switched to Romney. Barry Wynn said he was angered by Perry’s attacks on Romney’s time at Bain.
Perry is trying to attract voters by portraying himself as a Washington outsider. He is airing a new spot highlighting his support among members of the military, including a Medal of Honor recipient.
And he is crisscrossing the state, practicing the kind of retail politics he hopes can change voters’ hearts.
He picked up at least one vote this week at a department story in Pickens. Owner Glenn Brock told The Washington Examiner that he was showing off the store’s animal trophies when he learned Perry owns a stuffed bobcat.
Brock said he likes Perry’s job-creation record in Texas and the governor’s attitude, too.
Perry, Brock said, “is more realistic to the down-to-earth people in this part of the country.”
