MERCER — U.S. Senate candidate Tom Smith stopped in Mercer to rally the troops Saturday, telling a small crowd of local Republican activists that they are the “point of the spear” when it comes to getting out the vote.

Smith, a retired coal company owner from Armstrong County who carries the tea party banner in his challenge to incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr., is going to need every vote he can get, if the latest polls are accurate.

Smith is trailing Casey by between 12 and 20 percentage points in statewide polls, which also indicate a large percentage of undecided voters.

Decked out in cowboy boots and a western belt buckle, Smith was the star attraction Saturday as Mercer County Republicans held a campaign season “grand opening” of party headquarters on courthouse square.

On the stump, Smith said he could be summed up in one sentence: “I am God-fearing.”

Then he added two more qualifications sure to appeal to Republican voters in western Pennsylvania. Smith said he was “pro-life” and “pro-2nd Amendment.”

Making the case for his candidacy, Smith said he would build on Republican victories in state and federal elections in 2010. He said he’s talked with U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican who was elected that year, and Toomey told him the Senate is “frustrating” because it won’t take up on Republican House bills advancing the party’s limited government agenda.

Smith said he and other GOP candidates would serve as reinforcements to win a majority in the Senate, go to Washington and “shake the buildings to their foundations.”

Smith knows that he won’t win in Philadelphia, but said he is counting on the voters in western and central Pennsylvania to come through.

Smith’s path to the campaign trail isn’t a common one. A lifelong Democrat who worked as a coal miner, Smith ran several businesses before starting a coal company that made him a millionaire and got him thinking about the role of government in business. His political evolution eventually led him to the tea party movement and he founded an Armstrong County group before deciding to run for the Senate himself.

After switching parties, he defeated four other Republicans, including Gov. Tom Corbett’s hand-picked choice, to win the nomination. He’s spent millions of his own money on advertising to counter Casey’s fundraising advantage.

Smith said he sold his business rather than passing it on to his offspring because of government regulations and planned to retire to his family farm, where he could teach his grandchildren about the pastoral life.

He said he intended to pass along the wisdom he’s acquired about the land to the next generation, things like noticing a hornets’ nest high up in a tree that indicates a hard winter ahead and “when you hear anything from Senator Bob Casey, there must be an election coming.”

The joke plays into one theme Smith’s campaign is using against Casey, who is seeking his second term. Smith has set up a website mocking Casey as “Senator Zero,” a do-nothing politician.

Smith on Saturday ripped Casey for providing a critical vote in favor of Obamacare, voting for the stimulus, TARP, Cash for Clunkers, and to raise the debt ceiling.

“Not once has he come up with his own plan to cut spending or deal with the deficit,” Smith said.

The number one priority for the nation is to “grow the economy,” Smith said. To do that he said government has to get out of the way of business and politicians have to get the size of government under control.

Tax reform is necessary, Smith said.

“The tax code is ten times the length of the Bible with none of the Good News,” he quipped.

All areas of government spending should be examined to find cuts, Smith said. And while he quickly cited the departments of Energy and Education as likely targets for cuts, Smith also singled out the Defense Department.

The question of military spending should, he said, be “how much does this country need to defend itself?”