CNN

Watch Thompson on American Morning Tuesday.

(CNN) - While most of the presidential candidates are up in New Hampshire awaiting results of its first-in-the-nation primary, Republican candidate Fred Thompson is already in South Carolina, site of the next major primary vote. The former Tennessee senator, who essentially abandoned his New Hampshire campaign weeks ago, is embarking on an eleven-day bus tour throughout the Palmetto State.

“I swapped the snow for the mild temperatures,” he said Tuesday.

On CNN’s American Morning, he defended his strategy of skipping the Granite State’s high-profile contest. “It was all about getting out of Iowa with a ticket, a ticket to South Carolina,” he told anchor Kiran Chetry. “We have not spent very much time or money in New Hampshire. We went up there for the two debates that they had over the weekend, but it’s all been about getting to South Carolina and then going from there.”

South Carolina’s Republicans head to the polls January 19.

Thompson conceded that he wouldn’t do well in New Hampshire, telling Chetry: “I think that that’s pretty clear cut there.

– CNN’s Emily Sherman