Cockrell wants a presidential candidate who will "start deporting the lawbreakers." After concluding that McCain "doesn't get it," he's leaning toward Huckabee.
The former Arkansas governor, once criticized for proposing to give in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants, is appealing for anti-immigrant votes with implicit criticism of McCain, telling Carolinians that a vote for him will "send a message" to Washington.
"They've had their chance," Huckabee told supporters in Lexington, a fast-growing Columbia suburb. "They still haven't secured the borders. Let's make the American economy work for Americans, rather than for somebody halfway across the globe."
As he did in winning Iowa, the ordained Baptist minister is counting on support from religious conservatives in a state where Southern Baptists are 40 percent of the population and evangelical Christians may cast two of every five primary votes.
Huckabee is again running TV commercials that label him a "Christian leader" (a line he dropped in New Hampshire), and he met privately this week with a group of ministers.
The Rev. Thomas S. Hart, pastor of the Living Word Assembly of God church in Lexington, S.C., said Huckabee "has got more support than the polls are showing." Electing the first preacher-president since James A. Garfield would guarantee that "America will be blessed, and God will intervene" on the nation's behalf under a Huckabee administration, he said, offering scriptural references to bolster his point.
Jenny Martin, 27, a stay-at-home mother with 2-year-old twins and a baby due next month, said she and her husband are doing everything they can for Huckabee.
"We love the fact that there's a Christian running for president," said the self-described "values voter" from Irmo, S.C., who added that she cares about lower taxes, smaller government and fixing the immigration problem, as well as "pro-family issues" and ending abortion.
A prediction of bad weather throughout the state today is making political forecasting extremely hazardous, but some think the wintry conditions will help Huckabee.
"If it's raining, if it's cold, I put less money on" McCain's voters turning out "than I put on these evangelical Bible thumpers. They're going to be there," said Neil Thigpen, a McCain supporter and a political scientist at Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C.
paul.west@baltsun.com
