Since then, Romney has collected an unprecedented amount of money — more than $62 million by Sept. 30, including millions of dollars from Utahns — that has enabled his campaign to spend freely, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Early leads in those two states have helped boost Romney's hopes for South Carolina, long seen as a test of how well his Mormonism would be accepted by evangelical Christian voters in the conservative South.

Now, though, Romney has to contend in South Carolina with two Southern challengers, Huckabee, a Baptist minister, and Thompson, a latecomer to the race and a former U.S. senator now better known as an actor for his appearances in movies and on TV's "Law and Order."

"This thing is still wide open," said J. David Woodard, a political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina and a Republican consultant. "Romney, he's going to stay in. He's too substantive a guy."

Woodard said Romney can turn to his business experience to get him through any early losses. Romney made his money turning around troubled companies as head of a Boston-based venture capital firm.

"His business skills have taught him what the worse-case scenario is," Woodard said. "That's why I think he sees himself as still viable even if things don't start out so good. He doesn't have to win, he just needs to hang in there."

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