But right now, Gingrich is backed by 35 percent of self-identified tea-party Republicans, making him by far the most popular candidate among tea partiers. Only two other candidates registered double-digit support from tea partiers in the Fox News poll released last week: Herman Cain (20 percent) and Mitt Romney (15 percent).

One reason for Gingrich’s popularity may be the way he has courted tea partiers. “Newt has been reaching out to tea partiers all across the country for pretty much the past two and a half years,” says Amy Kremer, co-chairman of Tea Party Express. “American Solutions [a Gingrich organization] was involved with the Tax Day tea party in 2009. He has been reaching out, and I’ve seen a growing number of people supporting him.”…

It’s a different story in Iowa, where Charlie Gruschow, chairman of Tea Party for America, sees no sign from conversations he has had or e-mails he has received that Gingrich is attracting tea-party voters. “The three people I see who are the most attractive to tea-party members in Iowa are Ron Paul to some degree, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain,” he observes.

Gruschow, who is himself a Cain supporter, says he thinks Gingrich is “a brilliant man, a tremendous historian, and saying all the right things right now.” But he worries that a President Gingrich couldn’t be trusted to “do the right thing.”