“19 Kids and Counting” Star Trucks With Santorum Now

POLK CITY, Iowa – On Sunday, well-known reality TV star Jim Bob Duggar of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” hopped on board the Santorum-for-President bandwagon quite literally, driving to Iowa with a dozen of his children in a bus emblazoned with the words “Rick Santorum for President” on the side.

Duggar, a former Mike Huckabee supporter, had this to say about the 2008 election:

“The mistake we made was the whole political candidate field was splintered last time. A lot of Christians throughout the United States were supporting Fred Thompson and several other people. We don’t need to make the same mistake.”

Regarding his choice to throw his support behind Santorum, who is seeing new life in the polls, Duggar said:

“We’re calling on the Christian people throughout the United States to get behind Rick Santorum now, and don’t splinter the vote, get behind a true conservative with a proven track record.”

After coming in at the bottom of nearly every poll since the beginning of his campaign, Santorum found himself quickly rising in the polls after placing third in the all-important Des Moines Register poll Saturday night. Now the challenge is attaining an outright win Tuesday, giving him all the credibility he’d need for a national campaign.

“We have the momentum here,” he told the crowd. “I don’t know what we’re going to finish. It was really funny — David Gregory said to me on ‘Meet the Press,’ ‘Now, do you have to finish first?’ I said, ‘A week ago, two weeks ago, your reporter was asking me if I’m getting out of the race! Now all of a sudden you’re going to say I have to finish first?’ This is the craziness of the media.”

Though Romney still leads the Iowa polls (for now), Santorum is becoming a force to be reckoned with in conservative circles. The public support of reality TV star Duggar may be having exactly the effect he intended – though the conservative base is still quite splintered for now.

Do you think Duggar’s support will boost/has boosted Santorum’s White-House-Hopes?