The latest long-shot presidential candidate is a Southern Baptist baby boomer from Hope, Ark., who served as governor of his home state.
But this isn’t Bill Clinton and he isn’t a Democrat. Instead, he’s a Republican, an ex-pastor and former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
Mike Huckabee, in a Jan. 28 appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press," announced that he has formed a committee to explore the possibility of running for president on the GOP ticket.
Forming an exploratory committee is the first formal step in any presidential bid and allows the candidate to hire campaign staff and raise funds.
"I think America needs positive, optimistic leadership to kind of turn this country around, to see a revival of our national soul, and to reclaim a sense of … the greatness of this country that we love," Huckabee said on the program. "And also to help bring people together to find a practical solution to a lot of the issues that people really worry about when they sit around the dinner table and talk at night."
He recently completed 10 1/2 years as governor of Arkansas, during which he enjoyed high popularity ratings while working with a Democratic Legislature to achieve several policy successes.
His mix of experience, communication skills, affability and policy pragmatism is causing some prominent political pundits to take note of his candidacy.
"Huckabee is the Republican to watch, especially if former [Gov.] Mitt Romney of Massachusetts doesn’t gain traction," wrote E.J. Dionne Jr. in a recent Washington Post column. "Huckabee makes the case that he was as an effective governor who happens to be a serious evangelical, not the other way around."
The son of a fireman, Huckabee was born and raised in Hope — also Clinton’s birthplace and boyhood home.
He graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. — the Arkansas Baptist Convention’s flagship school — and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
After a few early years working in Christian broadcasting, he served as pastor of two sizeable Arkansas Baptist churches.
In 1989, while he was pastor of Beech Street First Baptist Church, Texarkana, Ark., Huckabee was elected president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention.
At the time — the height of theological conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention — Arkansas Baptist leaders considered Huckabee a moderate.
He defeated Ronnie Floyd, who was pastor of the state’s largest church and an insider with the denomination’s leadership.
Huckabee entered secular politics as a conservative Republican in 1992 in an unsuccessful bid to defeat longtime Democratic Sen. Dale Bumpers.
The next year, he won a special election to become the state’s lieutenant governor.
That office catapulted him to the governorship in 1996, after an ethics scandal forced the resignation of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat.
Huckabee was elected to two more terms. (ABP)
Share with others: