Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., stands with his family as he speaks to supporters in his tent at the Iowa Straw Poll, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2007, in Ames, Iowa. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Sam Brownback (R) Senator, KS Born: 09/12/1956 Birthplace: Parker, KS Home: Topeka, KS Religion: Catholic >> Website >> Forum >> Related Stories Coming Events

MERRIMACK, N.H. - Presidential hopeful Sam Brownback made one of his first trips to New Hampshire on Tuesday, buoyed by a third-place finish in the weekend's Iowa straw poll and a hope his conservative message might give him similar strength here.

Brownback opened his remarks at Thomas More College's breakfast by recalling his small-town upbringing. He immediately contrasted that with the current culture.

"You've got this society that is pulling apart. It's not rooted like this barn here," Brownback said, standing under exposed wood beams. "Society has forces that pull it apart, so much more so than the farming community I was brought up it. ... How do you hold a society together when you have these forces that pull every which way?"

Brownback won the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday, trailing only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. His finish gave his underdog campaign some credibility, particularly with voters looking for an alternative to top-polling candidates. Top rivals Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani skipped the Ames contest.

Brownback said he now will try to match his performance in Iowa, where social conservatives hold sway, in New Hampshire.

"We're building a grassroots campaign. I am not an overly funded candidate," he said after his campaign breakfast. "We just finished third in the Iowa Straw Poll. That's a ticket on forward _ third out of 11, we're there."

In New Hampshire, however, economic concerns tend to define the Republican field, not social ones such as abortion and gay marriage _ both opposed by Brownback.

"I think the message I'm putting forward resonates. It's a bit of a different message. I confess that to you, it's a bit of a different one," he said. "When people hear this, people think about it a little while. What I found in Iowa, as people thought about it, they thought, 'That's what I think, too.'"

Brownback's anti-abortion rights positions are not negotiable, he said, and they are rooted in his faith.

"Some would say there ought to be a freedom of choice. But what you're choosing is to kill a child. ... The most dangerous place in the United States is in the womb."

Brownback's quiet campaign in the first-in-the-nation primary state certainly has put him at a disadvantage. Rival campaigns have dozens of staffers and almost weekly events. Here, however, Brownback's presence has been passing. He's now trying to remedy that by appealing to voters' ethics and frustrations.

"We've got to look and discern what is right and what is wrong. That's sometimes not easy to do," he said.

He said it's time for voters to pick their nominee carefully.

"We've got to walk more humbly and a lot more wisely that the current president," Brownback said.

Brownback also repeated his strategy to fight terrorism. He would employ an approach similar to the U.S. policy of containment toward Communism during the last century to deal with this century's "long-term battle that we're in right now with militant Islamists."