ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Former Senator Rick Santorum made a campaign stop in Rock Hill Friday, and he took questions from the crowd.
Santorum is hoping for a strong finish here in the South Carolina primary, which will be held on January 21. He has recently been rising in the polls. The latest Real Clear Politics poll puts him in third place with about 14 percent of potential voters saying they'll cast their ballot for him. His number rings in about nine percentage points behind frontrunner Mitt Romney, and seven behind Newt Gingrich.
NewsChannel 36 reporter Greg Argos interviewed Santorum and asked him about the importance of a South Carolina win.
"Absolutely," Santorum said when asked whether he could win the primary here in South Carolina.
"If you look at the message we've been generating, it went from zero-to-sixty in Iowa when people started to look at who was best to beat Barack Obama," he continued.
About 300 people gathered at the Magnolia Room at the Laurel Creek Country Club in Rock Hill. It was the same space where Newt Gingrich held a town hall meeting earlier this week.
Many of the potential voters in the room seemed to already back Santorum, though one person mentioned she was attending as many political events and speeches to determine who to vote for on January 21.
Santorum headed to another speech in Fort Mill, South Carolina after his stop in Rock Hill.
