Rick Perry stresses "values" in new S.C. ad

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is out with a new television ad stressing his "values" shown by his decisions to serve in the Air Force and marry his high school sweetheart.

The spot does not touch on Perry's policy positions. Instead, it features the Texas governor discussing how the values he learned while growing up poor in West Texas will guide him in the Oval Office.

"As the son of tenant farmers from the West Texas town of Paint Creek,I learned the values of hard work, faith and family," Perry says in the spot. "I took those values with me when I served our country as a pilot in the Air Force. I returned home to farm and ranch with my father and married my high school sweetheart. The values I learned served me well as Governor of Texas, and will continue to guide me as president."

The Perry campaign said it is running the spot in South Carolina, which holds its primary on January 21. The campaign did not immediately respond to an email concerning how much it was spending to run the ad.

After a disappointing, fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Perry is hoping a strong finish in the socially-conservative Palmetto state can turn his campaign around.

Perry, who is not contesting the New Hampshire primary, is battling Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to claim the mantle as consensus conservative alternative to frontrunner Mitt Romney and Libertarian favorite Ron Paul.