Mike Huckabee
Michael Dale Huckabee (/ˈhʌkəbi/, born August 24, 1955) is an American political commentator, Baptist minister, and former politician who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007.[1] He was a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination in both 2008 and 2016.
Not to be confused with Mike Huckaby.
Mike Huckabee
Winthrop Paul Rockefeller (1996–2006)
Vacant (2006–2007)
Jim Guy Tucker
Jim Guy Tucker (1992)
Winthrop Paul Rockefeller
3, including Sarah
- Political commentator
- politician
- minister
- guitarist
He is the host of the talk show Huckabee, which ran on the Fox News Channel from 2008 to 2015, and has run on TBN since October 2017. He paused the show in January 2015 in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. From April 2012 through December 2013, he hosted a daily radio program, The Mike Huckabee Show, on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks.[2] Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist Pastor noted for his evangelical views,[3] a musician, and a public speaker. He has written several books, and was previously a political commentator on The Huckabee Report.[4]
In the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Huckabee won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and finished second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won, behind John McCain and Mitt Romney. Huckabee ran again for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, but withdrew early in the primary following a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucus.
Huckabee is the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current governor of Arkansas and a former White House press secretary.[5]
Early life[edit]
Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955, in Hope, Arkansas,[6] the son of Dorsey Wiles Huckabee (1923–1996) and his wife Mae (Elder) Huckabee (1925–1999), conservative Southern Democrats. Huckabee is of English, German, and Scots-Irish ancestry, with roots in America dating to the Colonial Era.[7][8] He has cited his working-class upbringing as the reason for his political views;[9] his father worked as a fireman and mechanic, and his mother worked as a clerk at a gas company.[10]
His first job, when he was 14, was at a radio station, where he read the news and weather.[11] He was elected governor of Arkansas by his chapter of the American Legion-sponsored Boys State program in 1972.[6] He was student council vice president at Hope High School during the 1971–1972 school year. He was student council president at Hope High School during the 1972–1973 school year.[12] He has one sister, Pat Harris, a middle school teacher.[13] He entered the ministry in 1972 at Garrett Memorial Baptist Church in Hope.
Huckabee married Janet McCain on May 25, 1974.[13][14] He graduated from Ouachita Baptist University on May 8, 1978,[15] completing his bachelor's degree in religion before attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He dropped out of the seminary after one year in order to take a job in Christian broadcasting.[16][17][18]
Political career[edit]
Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, campaign 1992[edit]
In Huckabee's first political race in 1992, he lost to incumbent Democratic senator Dale Bumpers, receiving 40 percent of the vote in the general election.[23] In the same election, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton was elected president, making lieutenant governor Jim Guy Tucker the new governor when Clinton resigned the governorship. In 1993, Republican state chairman Asa Hutchinson urged Huckabee to run in the special election for lieutenant governor held on July 27. Realizing his loss came among key conservative Democrats, Huckabee ran a decidedly conservative campaign. In the subsequent general election, he defeated Nate Coulter, who had been Bumpers's campaign manager the previous year,[24] 51–49 percent.[6] Huckabee became the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve as Arkansas lieutenant governor, the first having been Maurice Britt from 1967 to 1971.
In his autobiography From Hope to Higher Ground, Huckabee recalled the chilly reception that he received from the Arkansas Democratic establishment on his election as lieutenant governor: "The doors to my office were spitefully nailed shut from the inside, office furniture and equipment were removed, and the budget spent down to almost nothing prior to our arriving. After fifty-nine days of public outcry, the doors were finally opened for me to occupy the actual office I had been elected to hold two months earlier."[25]
Dick Morris, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his races in 1993, 1994, and 1998.[26] Huckabee commented that Morris was a "personal friend".[26] A newspaper article reported on Huckabee's 1993 win: "Morris said the mistake Republicans always make is that they are too much of a country club set. What we wanted to do was run a progressive campaign that would appeal to all Arkansans.'"[26]
Morris elaborated, "So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans."[26] Consequently, he abandoned his earlier support for the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) when in April 1994 following an adverse media campaign against the CofCC, Huckabee withdrew from a speaking engagement before their national convention. He repeated the accusations made by various media and civil rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center recalling his past association with the CofCC saying, "I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting [against] racism and anti-Semitism."[27]
In 1994, Huckabee was re-elected to a full term as lieutenant governor, beating Democratic candidate Charlie Cole Chaffin with nearly 59 percent of the vote.[28] While lieutenant governor, Huckabee accepted $71,500 in speaking fees and traveling expenses from a nonprofit group, Action America. R. J. Reynolds was the group's largest contributor.[19]
In October 1995, David Pryor announced that he was retiring from the United States Senate. Huckabee then announced he was running for the open seat and moved ahead in the polls,[6] but ultimately dropped out of the race to lead the state after incumbent governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned following his fraud and conspiracy convictions.[29]
During his campaign, Huckabee opposed in December then-governor Tucker's plan for a constitutional convention.[30] The plan was defeated by voters, 80–20 percent, in a special election. In January 1996, Huckabee campaigned in televised ads paid for by the Republican National Committee and the Arkansas Republican Party against a highway referendum. Tucker supported the referendum, which included tax increases and a bond program, to improve 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of highway.[31] On the referendum, the bond question, which included a sales tax increase and a gas tax increase, lost 87–13 percent. A second question, a five-cent increase on diesel tax, lost 86–14 percent.[31][32] Huckabee also opposed Tucker's plan for school consolidation.[32]
Media career[edit]
On June 12, 2008, Fox News announced it was hiring Huckabee as a political commentator and regular contributor to their 2008 American presidential election coverage, in their New York election headquarters.[107]
Huckabee filled in for Paul Harvey in July 2008.[108] A few months later, he signed a deal with ABC Radio Networks (now Cumulus Media Networks) to carry a daily commentary, The Huckabee Report, beginning in January 2009.[109] After Harvey's death his show replaced Harvey's broadcasts.[110] On April 15, 2015, Huckabee announced that The Huckabee Report would be ending May 1.[111]
Huckabee hosted a weekend show, Huckabee, on Fox News Channel, which premiered Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 8 PM EST.[112] For six weeks in summer 2010, Fox test-ran The Huckabee Show for the syndicated market; Huckabee was joined by guest co-hosts in the daily spin-off, among them Bob Barker of The Price Is Right fame.[113] Huckabee ended on January 3, 2015, so that Huckabee could consider the possibility of running for president.[94]
On April 2, 2012, Huckabee launched a long-form daily talk show on Cumulus Media Networks, who provide the call-in guests. The show, which is targeted at second-tier broadcast stations, features long-form interviews and discussions and airs in the noon to 3 p.m. time slot, directly opposite the market leader in talk radio, The Rush Limbaugh Show.[114] On November 27, 2013, Huckabee announced that the show will have its final broadcast on December 12, 2013, stating that he and Cumulus Media mutually decided not to renew the contract.[115]
In a December 2013 interview, Huckabee stated that he would be launching a news organization in partnership with Christian Media Corp. International.[116]
In October 2017, the Huckabee show was relaunched, now produced by and aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.[117]
Huckabee has written or co-authored several books including Do The Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America (released on November 18, 2008) which became a New York Times Best Seller,[173] Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork and God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.