POWHATAN, Va. — Virgil Goode has absolutely no chance of winning the presidency. But here in his home state, his quixotic quest for the White House as the Constitution Party candidate could peel votes away from Mitt Romney, and that is making some Republicans nervous.

"Why would you do this?" Susan Ferreri, a small-business owner, asked Goode recently when he dropped by an Italian restaurant in this Richmond suburb to hand out leaflets and rustle up votes. "I'm against Obama, and I will go with Romney, and I just really hope you don't upset it."

Goode, 66, a former congressman who is a staunch opponent of immigration and is a fiscal and social conservative, politely defended himself and moved on.

"I have heard that argument before," he said later in his distinctive Southern drawl.

Indeed he has. In many states, Republicans have worked to suppress Goode's candidacy. He is on the ballot in 26 states and is running as a write-in candidate in an additional 14. Republicans succeeded in blocking him in Pennsylvania; Goode says that it would have cost him $100,000 to fight to have his name included and that he did not have the money.

But the efforts failed here in the swing state of Virginia, where President Barack Obama and Romney are running neck and neck in the battle for 13 electoral votes. In the latest Fox News poll in Virginia, Goode is backed by 1 percent of likely voters.

Silver-haired and lanky, Goode has roots as a country lawyer in the bucolic southwestern town of Rocky Mount, where he is a household name and has a base of regional support.

"The problem for Romney is he is culturally so opposite from most voters in Southside Virginia that there is an area for Virgil Goode to win votes," said David Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "In 2008, there were close to 40,000 votes cast for third-party candidates in Virginia. What if Virgil Goode took 25,000 votes? That could be a potential difference maker."

The Romney campaign says it is not worried. "This election is a very clear choice between two candidates," said Rich Beeson, Romney's political director. "We are running a campaign that will ensure Mitt Romney wins regardless of who is in the race."

But Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, is more cautious. "I don't think his candidacy is helpful," Davis said of Goode.

To say Goode is running his campaign on a shoestring would be an understatement. He does not take money from political action committees and refuses all donations over $200. So far, he has spent about $200,000 — including, he said, $65,000 to $70,000 of his own money.

His platform is fairly simple. His jobs plan is to end all illegal immigration — and legal immigration, too, until the American unemployment rate drops below 5 percent.

He also favors ending automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants and would not allow them to attend public schools.