Bachmann and her husband danced the shag after she spoke.
/ Lindsey Theis
Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann visits Myrtle Beach
GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann http://bachmann.house.gov/ asked voters to help her get to the White House at Ripley's Aquarium myrtlebeach.ripleyaquariums.com/ in Myrtle Beach Tuesday evening.
"We can win, and we will win, if South Carolina has anything to say about it," she said in a speech.
She spoke for about 20 minutes Tuesday evening to a crowd numbering 500-600, according to security officials.
People started showing up about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon.
Sandra Brehn from Murrells Inlet says Bachman is an inspiring woman.
"Her values are unbelievable. I think she has intelligence. I think she has style, and she has a backbone," Brehn said.
Organizers with the Myrtle Beach Tea Party http://www.teapartypatriots.org/GroupNew/96f86cde-8562-4b18-a2f1-721d712496fd/Myrtle_Beach_Tea_Party and the Horry County Republican Party http://www.horrycountyrepublicanparty.com/ organized the event.
Bachmann officially announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential election in Iowa on Monday.
The crowd in Myrtle Beach Tuesday was bigger than her crowd in Iowa, according to her campaign staff.
The main message of her campaign, she said, was Barack Obama is a one- term President. She also said there's too much government spending in Washington right now, and she aims to change that.
"I think we should take some of those obesity programs coming out of Washington and apply it to Washington," she said.
Before Bachmann left, she did a few steps of the Shag http://www.sciway.net/tourism/sc-shag.html, South Carolina's state dance, to "Walkin' on Sunshine." Then she signed campaign posters and shook hands.
Leon Nobles, of Conway, says he came to see Bachmann speak because, "We had seen her on TV. We liked her in the line up, and we liked what we heard and we wanted to hear some more."
Bachmann spoke briefly to the media before heading inside the aquarium for a private fundraiser with 100 people, hosted by the Grand Strand Business Association. http://www.grandstrandbusinessassociation.com/
From Myrtle Beach, Bachmann will head to Charleston. She said she plans to be back in South Carolina a lot.
"We want a change in Washington in 2012," she said.
