Huntsman: 'We're going to surprise a lot of people'

"We already have our plane tickets purchased, so we plan to be in Columbia at 3 o'clock Wednesday," Weaver said. "I feel fantastic."

The campaign later released the details of Huntsman's appearances in South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday, including town hall meetings in Columbia and Charleston, calling the events the kickoff to Huntsman's "Country First" tour there.

Weaver said online contributions to the Huntsman campaign have tripled since his rise in the polls, and the campaign reported raising $112,000 Sunday night. The new influx of money, Weaver said, has been used to pay for campaign commercials in New Hampshire and to buy ad time in South Carolina.

Barbara Morris said she'd be a contributor if she wasn't unemployed. 

"I'm tapped out," said Morris, who was in sales and marketing before losing her job nearly a year ago. "If I could, I'd bring him a million dollars. That's how much I believe in him." 

Morris said she'd been considering casting her vote for either Romney or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich but then saw the recent debate where Romney criticized Huntsman for serving under a Democrat, President Barack Obama.

She said she believes her vote for Huntsman matters regardless of how well he does in Tuesday's election.

"It's not about popularity. It's about policy," Morris said.

Eric Orff, a retired wildlife biologist from nearby Epson, said he's "90 percent leaning" toward voting for Huntsman.

"He's the only Republican who believes as I do as a scientist in climate change," Orff said. "I can't believe the other guys, when they're driving around New Hampshire, aren't looking out the window and saying, 'Where's the snow?'"

The morning rally attracted a small but enthusiastic crowd that included a number of high school students on a field trip from New York. Despite the bitter chill in the air, they chanted and waved bright red Huntsman signs.

Before ducking into a nearby store for one of a series of network TV interviews he gave throughout the day, Huntsman reminded the crowd not to take his new standing in the polls for granted.

"We are the underdog candidate," Huntsman said. "Do you know what that means?"

"We're going to win," someone yelled back.

Huntsman, though, was careful not to promise a victory in his response.

"Of course we can do well," he said. "But you know what? We've got to work." 

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