Campaign Journal: Perry, IA

Rick Santorum got several dozen extra helping hands for the final 36 hours in Iowa when a bus bearing his name rolled up to his campaign stop in Perry around lunchtime.

Out piled Jim Bob Duggar and a dozen of his children, who came into the spotlight through the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting."

A portion of the evangelical family from northwest Arkansas drove north after church services on Sunday in order to stump for Santorum, arriving in Iowa around 1 a.m., said the Duggar family patriarch.

"Rick Santorum has a proven track record - he will stand for what's right," Duggar told reporters here.

"He's the one who authored the bill to ban partial-birth abortions. He's always for lower taxes, less government. His voting record is clear. And we believe that he's the one who has the charisma and the leadership to be the next president of the United States."

Duggar said the family had been praying about who to support, ultimately deciding on Santorum. Talking about the GOP options, he drew a stark contrast between Santorum and the more moderate Mitt Romney, primarily over the issue of the Massachusetts health care law and its coverage of abortion.

"Any girl can go into an abortion clinic right now in Massachusetts and have an abortion for $50 because of [Romney's] legislation that he put forth," he said. "Mitt Romney has said he's changed his stand on that, but he hasn't done anything to go back to his colleagues in Massachusetts and beg them to repeal that."

When they settled on helping Santorum, Duggar said his sons purchased a vinyl cutting machine to enblazon the former Pennsylvania senator's name across their iconic white bus. 

In addition to their children, another dozen volunteers from their church in Arkansas also traveled to the Hawkeye State to do phone-banking and campaigning.

"We're here to ask the people who consider themselves a family-values group, Christians, to consolidate behind Rick Santorum," Duggar said. "This is the time. He's our man."