KCTV 5Santorum optimistic ahead of Missouri primary

The road to the White House comes through Lee's Summit Friday night as Rick Santorum will make a stop.

Santorum spent the day going across Missouri at events in hopes the Show-Me State shows the national the GOP race is not over.

At Santorum's campaign stop in Fulton, MO, Jennifer Bloss held on to a board filled with campaign buttons.

"It's fun, it's fun being in the middle of all the political action and hearing the candidate," she said.

The St. Louis resident has been on the road to the White House all election season, selling buttons to Santorum supporters.

"Defiantly the ‘Fear the Vest' one. People always like the one with their pictures on them," Bloss said of the most popular buttons.

Santorum is third in GOP delegates out of the four candidates still in the race with three losses under his belt since a win in Iowa. He's the only candidate days from Tuesday's primary to make a stop in Missouri where there are no delegates on the line.

"You can have a huge say on Tuesday and you can send a huge message: Do you want a candidate who can take on Barack Obama and paint a very different vision or one that is just a little better?" said Santorum during his Missouri stop.

The presidential candidate is putting a lot of weight that the Show-Me State will show the nation with Tuesday's vote that he is still in the race.

"Right now the media's basically talking Romney-Gingrich day and night and this is a state where Gingrich is not on the ballot and Santorum has Romney one-on-one and I think he sees it as a chance to score a victory, although a somewhat hollow victory," said Steve Glorioso, a KCTV5 political expert.

The former Pennsylvania senator told the crowds they need to have courage when selecting a GOP nominee and that they should not feel they have to settle for a moderate, like Mitt Romney.

"This is very important, when the people behind you are enthusiastic and excited, that enthusiasm that tends to bleed over to those that are undecided," said Santorum.

If a person takes a Republican ballot Tuesday, they'll notice Newt Gingrich's name is not on the ballot and that's the reason Santorum is only targeting Romney at all his Missouri stops.

The Santorum rally starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at John Knox Village in Lee's Summit.

Copyright 2012 KCTV (Meredith Corp.)  All rights reserved. Dick Aldrich with Missouri News Horizon ccontributed to this report.