Mike huckabee biography presidential election

About

MIKE HUCKABEE was born in Hope, Arkansas, and graduated from Ouachita Baptist University. Huckabee served as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from until July when he became Governor after his predecessor resigned, becoming one of the youngest governors in the country at the time. Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term as governor in and was reelected in November He pushed through education reforms in Arkansas that significantly expanded the availability of college scholarships, increased the number of charter schools, and established new approaches to workforce education. His Smart Start and Smart Step initiatives placed a heavy emphasis on reading and mathematics for students from kindergarten through the eighth grade, and since their creation student scores on standardized tests have risen steadily. Huckabee was also a leader in improving health care, creating the ARKids First program to extend health insurance coverage to tens of thousands of children, and leading a ballot initiative that devoted all of the state&#;s tobacco settlement money to improving the health of Arkansans. He led the Healthy Arkansas campaign, which received nationwide attention for its emphasis on changing the unhealthy behaviors of Arkansas residents.

In , Huckabee led the fight for Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution, which created a sales tax that funded one of the finest systems of state parks in the country and a system of state-of-the-art nature centers. Known as the &#;highway governor,&#; he led the campaign for a bond issue to rehabilitate the state&#;s system of crumbling interstate highways. Huckabee also won passage of the first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history; led efforts to establish a Property Taxpayers&#; Bill of Rights; and created a welfare reform program that reduced the welfare rolls in the state by almost 50 percent. He is a former chairman of the Southern Governors&#; Association, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the Southern T

Michael Dale Huckabee was born on August 24, , in Hope, Arkansas, the son of Dorsey W. and Mae Elder Huckabee. Huckabee’s father was a firefighter, and his mother worked for the Louisiana Transit Company. In , he joined Garrett Memorial Baptist Church and became involved in church activities. His faith has played a significant role throughout his private and public life.

Tumultuous national and international events of spurred Huckabee’s desire for a career in media or public service. Indicative of things to come, in , Huckabee was elected governor of Arkansas Boys State. He dated Janet McCain during his final semester at Hope High School in , and the couple married May 25, They have three children.

Huckabee enrolled at Ouachita Baptist University, majored in religion, minored in speech, and graduated in after two-and-one-half years. He then attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Evangelist James Robison hired Huckabee to be his director of communications, a post he held until he returned to Arkansas in He became minister at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff. Huckabee later became the pastor of Beech Street Baptist Church in Texarkana and served in that position from to During these years, he established and became president of Beech Street Communications, an organization that created television station KBSC-TV (later KLFI 35). In , Huckabee was elected president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. During the two years he served as the president of that organization, people urged him to seek public office.

In , he decided to run as the Republican candidate against the incumbent Democrat Senator Dale Bumpers. Bumpers, a popular politician and former governor, had served in the Senate since and had a well-established base in the state. Huckabee was defeated in the general election that fall.

That same year, Governor Bill Clinton won the U.S. presidential election, and Lieutenant Governor Jim Guy Tuck

American political campaign

The presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, the 44thGovernor of Arkansas, began on May 5, , at an event in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Huckabee's candidacy for the Republican nomination in the presidential election was his second, after having previously run in Following a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses, Huckabee ended his run on February 1,

Background

Main article: Mike Huckabee presidential campaign

Further information: United States presidential election

Huckabee was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency in In the number of states won and popular vote, Huckabee came in third behind former Massachusetts governor (and future nominee) Mitt Romney and eventual nominee Arizona senator John McCain. In terms of total delegate count, he came in second behind McCain.

Post election

Following his defeat in the election, Huckabee became the host of the eponymous show Huckabee on Fox News Channel (FNC). In a November 19, , article by the Associated Press, Huckabee addressed the possibility of running for president in He said, "I'm not ruling anything out for the future, but I'm not making any specific plans". A June CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll showed Huckabee as the presidential co-favorite of the Republican electorate along with Palin and Romney. An October poll of Republicans by Rasmussen Reports put Huckabee in the lead with 29%, followed by Romney on 24% and Palin on 18%. On May 14, , Huckabee announced on his FNC show that he would not be a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in Despite his high national poll numbers and being seen by many as the front runner, Huckabee declined to run, saying, "All the factors say 'go', but my heart says 'no'."

Several political commentators speculated that Huckabee might be ready for ano

Governor of Arkansas from to

Not to be confused with Mike Huckaby.

Michael Dale Huckabee (, born August 24, ) is an American political commentator, Baptist minister, and former politician who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from to He was a candidate for the Republican Partypresidential nomination in both and

He is the host of the talk show Huckabee, which ran on the Fox News Channel from to , and has run on TBN since October He paused the show in January in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. From April through December , he hosted a daily radio program, The Mike Huckabee Show, on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks. Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptistpastor noted for his Evangelical views, a musician, and a public speaker. He has written several books, and was previously a political commentator on The Huckabee Report.

In the Republican presidential primaries, Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucuses and finished second in delegate