COLUMBIA - Fred Thompson focused on conservative themes as he courted Republican loyalists Wednesday, a Southerner making his initial visit to the first-in-the-South primary state since becoming a prospective presidential candidate.

"I don't feel like I've left home," the actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee said in his slow drawl, a day after raising money in Nashville, Tenn.

Mr. Thompson, 64, has no serious political organization in South Carolina. Yet he was greeted enthusiastically by about 400 people at a lunchtime fundraiser for the state GOP, a sign of Republican unease with the current field of 10 GOP candidates.

The reception in the state leading up to Mr. Thompson's appearance has been favorable.

"I'm much more impressed with Thompson than I am with any of the others," said Claude Sandidge, a 67-year-old retired produce broker. Mr. Thompson has the "conservative principles that correlate with Ronald Reagan," he said.

Betty Jackson, 73, who has run the Sunset Grill, a meeting place for GOP faithful, for 34 years, explained: "We're hunting a true conservative. That's what we're doing. That's why we're waiting."

Mr. Thompson, she said, might be that candidate.

"If our country needed defending, I think he would do it. But I also think that he would do something about the border situation," Ms. Jackson said.

Mr. Thompson, who is expected to declare his candidacy next month, easily sold out a Wednesday fundraiser for the state Republican Party. He plans no other campaign-style events during his one-day visit.

A poll last week showed Mr. Thompson and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fighting for the lead in South Carolina. It's not clear whether voters are drawn to Mr. Thompson because he is new to the race, or because of perceived flaws of other top-tier contenders.

Mr. Giuliani supports abortion rights. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Mormon religion has been questioned by powerful Christian conservatives. Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, has found himself on the wrong side of immigration legislation.

Harnessing voter enthusiasm will be difficult with no campaign in place, Thompson supporters said.

"It's still just a loose group of folks who want Fred to be the next president of the United States," said GOP state Sen. Larry Grooms, a Thompson supporter. "To put together a campaign structure ... that'll be our task for the month of July."

The Giuliani, Romney and McCain campaigns say they aren't perturbed by the rise in Mr. Thompson's popularity.

"I think one of his biggest problems may be that he's never really run anything," said Barry Wynn, a former state party chairman and chairman of Mr. Giuliani's South Carolina campaign. "He hasn't been a CEO. He hasn't been a governor. He hasn't been a mayor of the nation's largest city. What does he do as an executive when he's in charge?"