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"Law and Order" actor and former senator Fred Thompson is in third place among GOP presidential hopefuls in a new USA Today/Gallup poll. Since he announced that he was considering a bid two weeks ago, Thompson's support has skyrocketed to 12 per cent, kicking Mitt Romney to a distant fourth.

Thompson's rise shows that no candidate has staked a claim as the definitive conservative in the race, strategists say. "One way to read these numbers is, there are a lot of Republicans still shopping around for a candidate," says CNN pollster Keating Holland. (Read more Mitt Romney stories.)