|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=[[Janet Huckabee]] (1974-present)
|religion=[[Baptist]]
|offices=
{{Officeholder/governor
}}
}}
'''Mike Huckabee''' (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician who served 11 years as governor of Arkansas (1996-2007) and was the runner-up to winner [[John McCain]] in the contest for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, attracting more support than [[Mitt Romney]]. <ref>[http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/mar/04/huckabee-bows-out/ ''Huckabee bows out''] 5 March 2008 Arkansas Online</ref> A former He is the leader against [[Baptistsjudicial supremacy]] minister, he is and the infringement on constitutional rights caused by the [[conservativehomosexual agenda]] on the issues of . He is [[abortionpro-life]], and pro-[[gun controlSecond Amendment]], . He announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in the [[homosexuality2016 presidential election|2016 election]] on May 5, 2015,<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/05/huckabee-announces-2016-white-house-bid/</ref> and has participated in the [[evolution2016 presidential debates]].
Huckabee, after many years as a television personality 's position against judicial activism that pushes the [[homosexual agenda]] is principled and motivational speaker, combines conservative policy positions with a winsome friendly attitude that puts voters at easeconsistent. He came under attack has stated that as a "taxpresident he would not enforce the 5-and-spend liberal", especially by rival 4 [[Fred ThompsonU.S. Supreme Court]].<ref>See criticism reported by Jennifer Rubin, "Romney and Huckabee: Club for Growth Comparisons," [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22081 from decision on ''Human Events[[Obergefell]]'' Aug. 24, 2007] </ref> Huckabee's funding base was meager, with his family providing much of his organizational support. Throughout the presidential primary, Huckabee was viewed favorably by conservatives and Christian organizations such just as the prior presidents including [[Homeschool Legal Defense AssociationAndrew Jackson]]. Former Speaker of the House and [[Newt GingrichAbraham Lincoln]] predicted that Huckabee would catch on with Republican primary voters, calling him "did not enforce overreaching by the most interesting dark horse"Supreme Court in other decisions.<ref>http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6899608</ref>
Critical to his move from obscurity to the top rank of political contenders was his evangelical baseHuckabee, his conservatismafter many years as a television personality and motivational speaker, his appeal to southerners and his combines conservative policy positions with a winsome personalityfriendly attitude that puts voters at ease.<ref> Dan BalzThroughout the presidential primary, "Huckabee's Rise was viewed favorably by conservatives and Rise," Christian organizations such as the [http://blog[Homeschool Legal Defense Association]].washingtonpost.com/Former Speaker of the-trail/2007/12/10/post_234.html ''Washington Post'' Dec. 10, 2007House [[Newt Gingrich]; Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin, "Suddenly, ] predicted that Huckabee Is in Romney's Rearview Mirrorwould catch on with Republican primary voters,calling him " [http://wwwthe most interesting dark horse.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/24/AR2007112401338_pf.html ''Washington Post'' Nov. 25, 2007]; "Shields and Brooks Mull Iowa Election Push, Baseball Scandal" [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec07/sbbaseball_12-14.html PBS, Dec. 14, 2007]</ref>After losing to McCain Huckabee became a contributor on Fox News <ref>http://embeds.blogswww.foxnewswmcstations.com/2008Global/06/12/huckabee-joins-fox-as-contributor/ Huckabee joins Fox as Contributor story.asp?S=6899608</ref> and now hosts his own show called 'Huckabee.'
Conservatives in Arkansas and nationally have attacked Critical to his very lenient policy move from obscurity to the top rank of pardoning criminalspolitical contenders was his evangelical base, some of whom went on to commit horrendous crimeshis conservatism, such as Maurice Clemmons, who murdered four police officers in Seattle in Nov. 2009. Other conservatives defend his actions in terms of Christian forgivenessappeal to southerners and his likable personality. "This disaster is just one of Huckabee’s ill-considered clemency legacies<ref>Dan Balz," said [[Michelle Malkin]], while [[Rush Limbaugh]] referred to Clemmons as "Huckabee's Willie HortonRise and Rise,"[http://blog. Huckabee faced conservative criticism during washingtonpost.com/the 2008 primaries for granting a pardon to convicted rapist Wayne DuMond-trail/2007/12/10/post_234.html ''Washington Post'' Dec. Like Clemmons10, DuMond returned to a life of crime2007]; Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin, earning a second conviction before dying "Suddenly, Huckabee Is in prison in 2005.<ref> Conservatives lambasted Democratic presidential nominee [[Mike Dukakis]] in 1992 for his actions as governor in allowing Horton to go free. See Romney's Rearview Mirror," [http://www.politicowashingtonpost.com/newswp-dyn/storiescontent/1109article/300142007/11/24/AR2007112401338_pf.html Andy Barr, "Conservatives hammer Mike Huckabee over shooting," ''PoliticoWashington Post'' Nov. 3025, 20092007]; "Shields and Brooks Mull Iowa Election Push, Baseball Scandal" [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec07/sbbaseball_12-14.html PBS, Dec. 14, 2007]</ref>After losing to McCain, Huckabee became a contributor on Fox News <ref>http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/06/12/huckabee-joins-fox-as-contributor/ Huckabee joins Fox as Contributor</ref> and hosted his own show called ''Huckabee''.
==Career==
Huckabee was born and raised in Hope, Arkansas , into a working -class family.<ref> He did not overlap in Hope with [[Bill Clinton]] (1946- ) who was also born in Hope; Clinton left as a small child.</ref> Huckabee in his early teens became a radio announcer and preacher. He attended nearby Oachita Baptist College (BA 1975), and studied theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas (1976-801976–80, no degree.) He was minister at Baptist churches in Pine Bluff and Texarkana, Arkansas in the 1980s, gaining fame for his preaching style and for his religious shows on television. He was elected in 1989 as president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, with 490,000 members; he was elected as a moderate in opposition to the hardline conservatives.
Huckabee is the author of health books featuring his exercise and weight-loss exercise program, and bass guitar player for his rock band, Capitol Offense. He is married to Janet (née McCain); they have three children.
==2008 Caucuses and Primaries==
''{{Main Article: [[|Mike Huckabee 2008 Presidential Campaign]]''}}
Almost unknown in mid 2007, he climbed the polls steadily and won the closely watched Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, 2008. His base of support comprises "born again" evangelical Christians, who comprise 35% of the GOP voters.<ref>. Evangelicals comprise 48%-68% of Republicans in the South and border states, 47% in Iowa, and only 11% in New Hampshire. Andrew Kohut, "The G.O.P.’s Unanswered Question," [http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/the-gops-unanswered-question/ ''New York Times'' Jan. 11, 2008]</ref>
Huckabee's campaign started to take off in summer 2007 after the high -profile [[Ames Straw Poll]], where he came in 2nd place (18%) to Gov. Romney's 32%, ahead of Sen. Brownback's 15%. He won second place despite far less name recognition and far less spending - he spent about $35 per vote, whereas Romney spent more than $500 per vote. His victory placed him in the top tier of Republican primary candidates.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/12/ftn/main3159786.shtml</ref><ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22081</ref><ref>http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/</ref> His second surge began after the Republican [[YouTube]] debate, where he was seen as calm, reasonable and positive next to the other candidates, many of whom attacked each other.
He was the winner of the straw poll after the Sept. 17th "valuesdebate".<ref>http://www.earnedmedia.org/kg0918.htm</ref> In October 2007, Huckabee overwhelmingly won the high-profile Family Research Counsel's Value Voter Summit straw poll. Out of those attending, Huckabee received more votes then all other candidates combined.<ref>http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/romney_camp_stacking_the_value.html</ref>
Poll numbers show that Huckabee's strong debate performances, communication skills and likability had him steadily moving up in key primary states. He was victorious in the Republican Caucuses at the [[Iowa Caucuses]],<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/21/s.c.straw.poll/index.html</ref>, and came in third place in the New Hampshire Primary, where he personally expected to not even place in the top three.<ref>http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/01/08/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-take-early-lead-in-new-hampshire-primary/</ref>
Huckabee perfected the shoestring operation. He raised only $2.3 million by October 2007, less than 5% of the money of each main rival. He never had enough money to send advance teams to organize events or drum up crowds, nor could he afford fund-raising operations, private polls, big-name political consultants, or a staff of policy advisers and media experts. He relied on volunteers from churches and the home-school movement to schedule his events. The retail politics of the first states did not cost much. He won in Iowa by relying on his quick wit, fluent oratory, and in lieu of commercials, as many TV and radio talk-show appearances as he could schedule. To draw crowds his rallies featured Hollywood star [[Chuck Norris]] and his own playing the bass guitar with local rock bands. As the election calendar turned to larger states he lacked the cash to compete, so in late Jan. 2008 he cut back on Florida operations to concentrate on a few smaller, overlooked southern states on Feb. 5.<ref>David D. Kirkpatrick, "Huckabee’s Money Woes Curtail Campaign," [http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/huckabees-money-woes-curtail-campaign/ ''New York Times'' Jan. 22. 2008]</ref>
In 2005 [[Time Magazine]] declared him one of "America's 5 Best Governors".<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1129494,00.html</ref>
In a controversial movehis gubernatorial elections, Huckabee aggressively pushed for the release of [[Wayne DuMond]], a serial rapist who had raped a 17-year-old girl, [[Ashley Stevens]]. Conservative Christians came in strong support of DuMondby minorities, after and he had converted reaches out to Christianity minority voters in prison. Huckabee became DuMond's public advocate, writing him a personal letter of support and lobbying the Republican primary for his release to the state parole boardpresident more than most other candidates. <ref>http://www.wndwashingtonpost.com/indexpolitics/mike-huckabee-looking-for-a-niche-woos-blacks-in-gop-primaries/2015/07/27/cf6fc468-3081-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_story.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=45053html</ref> The parole board agreed. Huckabee has denied having any involvement with Wayne DuMond, and his website claims he had not pressured the state parole board, despite three of the parole board members saying he had done so.
== Political Beliefs ==
===Marriage===
Huckabee is opposed to same -sex "marriage " and civil unions. He also is a strong advocate for fathers' participation in child-raising.<ref>http://www.ontheissues.org/Mike_Huckabee.htm</ref>
===Second Amendment Rights===
Huckabee lost 110 pounds while governor of Arkansas and documented his weight loss and set out a 12-step plan for weight loss in his book ''Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork.''<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7752179/site/newsweek/</ref> He has also made childhood obesity a major platform issue. He became the first person in his family to attend college when he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas; he graduated in only two and a half years.
The Now living in Florida, the 52-year-old former governor and his wife live lived for years in [[Little Rock]] and have three grown children. Huckabee enjoys playing in his rock-n-roll band, Capitol Offense, which has played at the House of Blues in New Orleans, the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, and for two presidential inauguration balls.
[[Image:Huckabee1.jpg|thumb|290px|left|[http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-09-2007/0004719299&EDATE= Dec. 17, 2007 with cover story]]]
==Quotes==
* "…my [[faith]] is my life. It defines me. I see no separation between my faith from my personal and professional lives."<ref>''Faith and Politics'' [http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=9 mikehuckabee.com] Accessed 3 January 2008.</ref>
* "When it comes to the red tape in government, I don't think I can part the Red Sea but I believe I can part the red tape."<ref>''GOP presidential debate'' Iowa, 12 December 2007.</ref>
* "[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."<ref>''[http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/15/579265.aspx''[http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/15/579265.aspx'']</ref>
* "To think that we're going to go lock up 12 million people, or even round them up and drive them to the border and let them go, might make a great political speech, but it's not going to happen." ''[[Washington Post]]'', May, 2006.
* "(I) propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and leave the country." ''Secure America Plan", December, 2007.
* "I didn’t major in math. I majored in miracles and I still believe in them." (In response to questions about his continuing campaign even after the liberal news media dismissed his primary campaign as a failure.)<ref>''Mike Huckabee's campaign rolls on'' February 2008 [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578452/Mike-Huckabee%27s-campaign-rolls-on.html''Mike Huckabee's campaign rolls on'' February 2008]</ref>
==Endorsements==
Huckabee picked up some key endorsements in the very significant primary in [[New Hampshire]]. In August 2007, New Hampshire's former Senator, Russell Prescott, and former Executive Councilor David Wheeler endorsed Huckabee.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2007/08/huckabee_endors.html</ref> Both figures remain very popular with social conservatives in the state.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2007/08/huckabee_endors.html</ref>
== Criticism ==
He came under attack as a "tax-and-spend liberal," especially by his unsuccessful rival [[Fred Thompson]],<ref>See criticism reported by Jennifer Rubin, "Romney and Huckabee: Club for Growth Comparisons," [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22081 from ''Human Events'' Aug. 24, 2007]</ref> whose candidacy ended up helping [[John McCain]]. Huckabee's funding base was meager, with his family providing much of his organizational support. Some have criticized grants of clemency by Huckabee while he was governor, although the media have distorted the record. Huckabee never released from jail Maurice Clemmons, who was unanimously released by the Arkansas parole board and nearly a decade later (and multiple imprisonments and releases) murdered four police officers in Seattle in November 2009. Huckabee faced criticism during the 2008 primaries for granting a pardon to convicted rapist Wayne DuMond. Like Clemmons, DuMond returned to a life of crime, earning a second conviction before dying in prison in 2005.<ref>In 1992, conservatives lambasted Democratic presidential nominee [[Mike Dukakis]] for his actions as governor in allowing Willie Horton to go free. See [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/30014.html Andy Barr, "Conservatives hammer Mike Huckabee over shooting," ''Politico'' Nov. 30, 2009]</ref> == External Links links ==
* [http://www.mikehuckabee.com/ Mike Huckabee (official)]
*[http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.Home Huckabee Campaign Blog]
*[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDA2NzhkZGI2ZjA4NWI2NmMyYzNkNjY1Y2QzMzlmYzA=Governors Win, The case for Mike Huckabee.], [[National Review]], S. T. Karnick, August 2007
*[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24068 There’s a Huckabee Born Every Minute], [[Ann Coulter]], [[Human Events]], 12/19/2007
*[http://www.mikehuckabee.com/home Mike Huckabee 2016 campaign website]
==External Videos==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwfzk5RSQy4&eurl=http://www.hucksarmy.com/video.php?video=we_like_mike_huckabee We Like Mike - Huckabee]
*[http://www.hucksarmy.com/video.php?video=i_heart_huckabee_colbert_stewart I heart Huckabee]
===Personal Story===
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3YR3grKJ3Q&eurl=http://www.hucksarmy.com/video.php?video=story_of_mike_huckabee Part 1]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8aBVYKpZNQ&feature=related Part 2]
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