Republican Mike Huckabee, riding a wave of success in recent presidential polls, drew around 400 supporters—including hundreds of home-schoolers and their children—to uptown Charlotte this morning.
Supporters clutching kids and signs crammed into a 27th floor restaurant in Charlotte Plaza, crowding elevators and creating temporary gridlock in the building's lobby, reports The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill.
The Charlotte stop kicked off a two-day swing through South Carolina for the former Arkansas governor. He'll visit Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and Greenville.
Two recent polls show Huckabee leading his GOP rivals in South Carolina. A new Associated Press poll released Friday shows he has surged to second in the GOP field behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And a Des Moines Register poll this week showed him leading in Iowa, whose Jan. 3 caucuses kick off the presidential nominating contests.
Read more after the jump.
