(CNN) - For Rick Santorum's team, the campaign trail just got a few thousand miles longer - and slightly more tropical.
The candidate's eldest child, Elizabeth, 20, will go to Hawaii to stump for her dad ahead of the state's caucuses next week, Santorum announced Saturday.
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In the fight for the Republican presidential nomination, the campaign's decision further underlines that every delegate counts, even those located half an ocean away.
With 17 delegates at stake, Hawaii holds open caucuses, meaning any registered voter in the state can participate. Voters will caucus on Tuesday.
The former Pennsylvania senator broke the news about his daughter while standing on stage at a campaign rally in Missouri with his wife, Karen, and second-oldest child, John.
"John just said to me there is an advantage of being the oldest," Santorum joked.
Elizabeth Santorum, who has become a top surrogate for her father, isn't the first child of a candidate to be sent to distant lands this election cycle.
On Thursday, Mitt Romney's campaign announced they were sending the candidate's son Matt to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, both of which held their caucuses Saturday.
Romney won all nine delegates in Guam, as well as nine delegates in the Northern Marianas.
Also see:
Romney scores second island victory in Northern Marianas
Jobs, energy dominate weekly addresses
From CNN Politics
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I think his name should be changed to Rick SANITORIUM.
Because I think he's so extreme he's dangerous.
Hint to the righties: This will make her a public figure and subject to criticism and comment, so spare us the poutrage if a comedian makes a joke about her. Defamation (lying about her) is different, though.
Yay! I'm going to see her. I wish Rick himself came here though.
Santorum 2012
WOW, she looks just like her father. Not a good sign. They both have that grin thing down pat. Gag!
Nice vacation dad! Did the PAC pay for the trip? Who paid for the flight and hotel? It will be a tough gig in HA on the one hand its where Obama grew up and on the other is the University of Hawaii an LDS school. Mormons have that game down. Fundamentalist and rigid Roman Catholism is going to be a tough gig in HA but Elizabeth should still have great weather, a good flight, and a nice hotel.
Santorum won't find Hawaii as accomodating as Kansas. Even the Republicans in Hawaii aren't as radical in their practice of religion and the people of Hawaii aren't as bigoted as the "Red States". People who live on small islands learn that compromise and tolerance are positive traits – far away from the Tea Party mind-set.
Looks like Lizzy just needed a spring break trip to Hawaii paid for by daddy's donors.
Did Santorum send Elizabeth on a secret mission to check out President Obama's birth certificate? Maybe he should send some of his other children to Area 51 to check on UFOs.
Why is his daughter in more photo ops then his wife ?
Something is weird about this guy. Then again , somethings also wrong with Mitt and the Newt .
The whole GOP looks like nerds with daddy issues.
His Daughter is now fair game in the Media.. Let the speculation begin.... Does she need contraceptives?
Hawaii? Seriously? Isn't he afraid she might end up in Kenya, or Indonesia, or God knows where. BTW, how can we be sure she is really Santorum's daughter. Has she produced a birth certificate yet?
Children believe in their parents and do what is necessary to help them win. Too bad in the end they will discover how much "defeat" hurts!!
Obama 2012 – The Only Trusted Way Forward!!
I hope she had contraception. A free vacation without dad in hawaii. Damn damn damn well grandpa explain this.
Does she have like 10 kids also?
Who cares, but I do like the sign being held by some kid in the background. Yes, home schooled, so your worlds is a tiny little spec of religious rhetoric and the world as your parents see it until you leave the nest and find out that the world is not a tiny shell of your kind but a complex world made of many different people and points of views and religions.
Bad idea, Rick! You don't want the world to see the non-sense you have been teaching your little girl. Don't do it. It will be a disaster!!!
Bunch of horses in the family. Please don't grin.
So it's not ok for a woman to forgo being a wife and mother in order to work, but it is ok for him to use his daughter to try to gain votes. What is Rick gonna do when he finds out how popular the Mormons are in Hawaii? What is Rick gonna do when his daughter decides to become a Mormon?
How many Caddies this pig has???????????