By MACKENZIE WEINGER | 1/15/12 8:25 PM EST
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Ron Paul returned from a four-day absence from the trail Sunday with what his campaign dubbed a “game-changing” endorsement: A local state senator.
Paul’s operation here isn’t as strong as what he had going into the two previous early states. But the backing of Tom Davis, a well-known fiscal conservative who served as chief of staff under Gov. Mark Sanford before being elected to the legislature, kicked off what his campaign is promising to be a week of intensified activity ahead of Saturday’s primary.
Davis said he’d met with all of the major Republican contenders — he particularly called out Jon Huntsman as a “fine man” — but his decision stemmed from Paul’s focus on the debt. Davis noted he was a personal fan of Paul, sharing he watches video clips of the Texas Republican “as much as my daughter watches Glee.”
“Dr. Paul is somebody that I’ve watched for the past 26 years and I’ve always admired the principled stands he’s taken in Congress,” Davis told the overflowing crowd at the rally here Sunday that was Paul’s only stop of the day.
Paul, who gave this typical stump speech focused on economics and personal liberty, told the cheering crowd he had heard Davis was a “very popular senator, and now I believe that.”
“I really appreciate his vote of confidence in giving me this wonderful endorsement,” Paul said.
After the rally, Paul said he felt confident Davis’s endorsement would live up to the “game-changing” billing in a state where his campaign says it’s stepped up efforts following Paul’s strong second place finish in New Hampshire last week.
“He has a lot of influence,” Paul said. “So I do think it’s going to be a very significant event, because he’s been identified with the type of ideas I’ve talked about. He talked about Austrian economics, he was recently elected as a tea party person, and I think that’s exactly the kind of person that will get the attention. I think he’s going to be a big help to us.”
Paul’s been less of a factor in the South Carolina race than he was in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he told the crowd Sunday that his expectations for the state were rising.
“I don’t know if you noticed, you probably have, but the campaign’s been going pretty well,” he said during the rally. “It did well in Iowa, it did well in New Hampshire, and we’re going to do well next Saturday, right? And when we do well, we will send a powerful message.”
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