While Ron Paul only pulled in 7 percent of the votes in Florida, a key backer of Mitt Romney expects the Texas Republican to have a “respectable showing” in the upcoming Minnesota caucuses.

In a conference call with reporters today, Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota and co-chair of Romney’s national presidential campaign, said that, while he thinks Romney will do well in his state, he can’t guarantee a win.

Pawlenty, who endorsed Romney after dropping out of the 2012 presidential race himself, said anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 of the 3 million registered Minnesota voters typically show up for the caucuses. The small electorate makes it tough to predict the results, he noted. The difficulty is compounded by the nature of conservative coalition, as the number of social, economic, libertarian-leaning and national defense conservatives varies from year to year, he added.

The former Minnesota governor expects Paul to have a good turnout because of the Texas congressman’s strong grassroots following in the state. He also won’t count out Gingrich, who Pawlenty says has been to the state many times in his political career.