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DEERING, N.H. -- Though you might not know it given the manner in which Jon Huntsman elevates the importance of the New Hampshire primary in almost every public breath, the Republican nominating fight won't end when voters here cast their ballots on Jan. 10.

Even if Huntsman exceeds expectations in the state where he has bet it all, the challenge of keeping his hopes alive will be even tougher in the subsequent voting state of South Carolina.

Huntsman has crept up a bit in recent New Hampshire polls and frequently predicts victory here, but he told reporters after a town hall-meeting on Saturday night that even a second-place finish in the Granite State might be enough to significantly boost his chances in the South Carolina primary.

"You can certainly argue that it would dramatically beat market expectations, and that’s what we need to do,” he said.

Huntsman added that a strong showing in New Hampshire would prove both the strength of his ground game and would provide conservatives who dominate subsequent primary states with a reason to give him another look.

Nowhere will the support of traditional Republican voters be more important than in the South Carolina primary, which falls just 10 days after New Hampshire voters cast their ballots.

Huntsman has three full-time paid staffers who have been planting seeds in South Carolina since signing on to the campaign last spring, and he has earned the endorsement of a couple well-known figures in the Republican establishment: former Attorney General Henry McMaster and Mike Campbell, who chaired Mike Huckabee’s 2008 campaign in the state and is the son of late South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell.

“He’s got a really nice bench in South Carolina,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who campaigned in New Hampshire with Huntsman over the weekend, told RCP. “It’s not as visible as it is here, but I think the campaign clearly realizes that gains here, you don’t want to lose in South Carolina. So below the radar, they’re doing a lot of prep work.”

Still, a grim fact for Huntsman’s South Carolina hopes remains: He has not broken 3 percent in a single state poll since entering the race.

But unlike four years ago, when South Carolina was one of the battlegrounds in the months before the primary, the various Republican campaign operations and activities in the state have been dramatically scaled down this time, and the candidates themselves have made far less frequent visits.

Polling in South Carolina has been both infrequent and mercurial, and there appears to be significant opportunity for even more surprises to develop in a campaign season that has been defined by them.

The pro-Huntsman independent group Our Destiny PAC has gone off the air this month, but a strong New Hampshire showing might be just what is needed to convince the candidate’s billionaire father to pour more of his fortune into the group to fund a last-minute ad campaign in the Palmetto State.