AIKEN, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidate whose telegenic looks have earned him the nickname “Matinee Mitt” prefers to talk about keeping taxes low and defeating global jihad.

But many voters want to know how he is guided by his Mormon faith. “I get asked a good deal,” Mitt Romney told the Daily Telegraph. “I’m proud of my heritage, proud of my faith.”

Being a Mormon would not be an impediment to reaching the White House, the former Massachusetts governor insisted.

“People want to see a person of faith lead the country, but they don’t particularly care which band of faith that might be — as long as they share the values, which are known as being part of our American heritage, and I certainly share those values.”

Mr. Romney, 59, is running third in polls behind Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain of Arizona, but he has built an organizational and fund-raising structure that leads many Republicans to believe he will emerge as the party’s nominee next year.

His impressive record in salvaging the 2002 Winter Olympics and balancing the budget in the most liberal state in America, as well as an appearance and manner that marks him as a White House occupant from central casting, also give him powerful advantages.

But Mr. Romney’s attempts to stake out a position as the most socially conservative of the three main candidates are complicated by his Mormon faith as well as a liberal stance on abortion rights as recently as 2004.

“He’s going to have to come out and discuss being a Mormon,” said Mary Hahn, 50, at a Romney event at Lizard’s Thicket diner in this state’s capital, Columbia.

A crucial early primary there next January will test opinion in the conservative Deep South.

“It’s not a problem for me, but he will have to say that this is not a cult, and this is a form of religion that’s very similar to Christianity.”

Indeed, Mormons are Christians, and Mr. Romney has said, “I personally believe that Jesus Christ is my savior.” They follow the Bible, as well as the Book of Mormon, a religious text published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

Mr. Romney remarks in almost every stump speech that he is a father of five, grandfather of 10, and has been “going steady for about 40 years” with the same woman. Occasionally, he jokes about polygamy, asserting that marriage is between “a man and a woman and a woman.”

Polygamy was outlawed by the Mormon Church in 1890 but is continued to this day by breakaway factions. More than a century ago, Mr. Romney’s great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, had five wives and moved to Mexico to escape his church’s new stricture on marriage.

Mr. Romney declines to discuss his faith but, in a re-working of the notorious “boxers or briefs” MTV question asked of President Clinton in 1994, has had to endure inquiries about whether he wears traditional Mormon undergarments. “I’ll just say those sorts of things I’ll keep private,” he has responded.