Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum had some help spreading his message in Illinois over the weekend, as the Duggar family of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting" came to the Chicago area to court Evangelical voters.
Though Santorum is trailing Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday's Illinois primary, Jim Bob Duggar told the Chicago Sun-Times that he believes it will be a close race, and that Santorum can come out on top.
The family of 19 has previously stumped for Santorum in Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Alabama.
“We’re here to encourage people to get out the vote for Rick Santorum,” the family patriarch told the Sun-Times. “People really have warm hearts here in Chicago, and it’s amazing the growing support for Rick Santorum.”
While Santorum's Christian supporters helped bring him a victory in Mississippi, The Huffington Post's Mark Blumenthal reports that he might have a harder time in Illinois:
... Illinois polls do not seem as likely to underestimate Santorum's support. In the 2008 primary, just a third (33 percent) of Republican primary voters identified as white, evangelical Christians on the network exit poll. In last week's primaries, however, exit polls shows 75 percent of the primary voters in Alabama and 80 percent in Mississippi identified as born-again or evangelical Christian.
"We have been praying to the Lord that if you want the heart of the voters to turn to Rick Santorum then please do so,” Michelle Duggar told RadarOnline. “We prayed that more people would take a look at him, and more people are getting behind him.”