They sit rapt as the GOP presidential contender weaves a complex sermon deploring the tax code, abortion, President Clinton and a general decline in morals. Occasionally, they shout "Amen!" or applaud.

These are the Iowans who are supporting Keyes in remarkable numbers as the first-in-the-nation caucus on Monday approaches.

While George W. Bush and Steve Forbes, the expected Nos. 1 and 2, squabble over their projected slices of the vote, Keyes has quietly moved into a tie for third place, drawing up to 10 percent in some state polls.

Who are these supporters, and why are they gravitating to long-shot Keyes?

"They're just folks who realize that the major challenge we face is a moral challenge," Keyes said Thursday night.

Those who braved single-digit temperatures outside to see the former U.N. ambassador in rural Mason City were housewives, factory workers, farmers and students at the community college where Keyes spoke. "These are not your regular Republican activists," said Drake University professor Hugh Winebrenner, a caucus historian.

Many said they supported Keyes for his assertion that morals should underpin American culture and politics, and that morals and rights flow from God, not from citizens or the government.

Asked after the address whether she was a Keyes supporter, 33-year-old Shawna Germundson said, "Now I am."

"He's about restoring morality and integrity," said Germundson, who teaches her children at home. "It's what this country needs after Clinton."

"He seems like a very strong-minded person who's not going to be swayed one way or another -- he'll stand his ground," said Ken Roeder, a 30-year-old driver. "It comes from his heart, he's thought things through instead of looking at polls."

"For those who want a rock 'em, sock 'em, revivalist kind of talk, and don't want to worry about electability, Keyes gives them that revivalist message," said Dennis Goldford, chairman of the politics and international relations department at Drake.

Keyes, a former State Department official and radio host, drew 8 percent of the vote in the 1996 Iowa caucuses and has spent 59 days here since 1997, by Winebrenner's count. He is running about even with Gary Bauer, who is courting the same bloc of Christian conservatives, and with John McCain, the Arizona senator who is not campaigning in Iowa.

And while Keyes professes to disdain the dirty business of politics, he can promote himself, too.

"Most people who watched the debates reached a conclusion about who was the most effective in that regard, and their conclusion didn't hurt us any, let's put it that way," Keyes said.

Many political scientists believe a 10 percent showing by Keyes would say much about Iowa's conservative politics but mean little nationally.

Said John W. Schmaltz, a political science professor at North Iowa Area Community College: "Realistically, I don't think he can do it beyond here."