Huckabee Not Reconsidering Presidential Run
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, appeared on Fox News and denied reports that he was reconsidering his earlier decision not to seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
“I do not see a path for me, either financially or organizationally,” Huckabee told Neil Cavuto on Fox News Friday afternoon. He said unless someone donated $50 million right away, he didn’t see it happening.
Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination, appeared on the show soon after Reuters reported that he had been approached by Republican and conservative activists unhappy with the current crop of presidential hopefuls.
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“The conservative Huckabee, who appeals to evangelical Christians and is seen as an effective campaigner, is taking another look at jumping in,” the newswire said, attributing it to two unnamed sources close to Huckabee. “He is entertaining the request for conversations about it,” one source was quoted as saying. “I do not think it is a complete 100 percent ‘I’m reconsidering’ but he hasn’t shut the door on it.”
The Reuters story, carried by many news organizations, came at a time when polls show President Barack Obama ahead of his potential rivals in 2012. Besides, the latest Fox News poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s come back as the frontrunner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry as trailing behind, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign as gradually losing support.
However, Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor, maintained he was happy with the decision he took in May to forgo the race, as people were looking for candidates who could “poke out the eyes of the other side.” He also said candidates who entered the race early needed to stay faithful to their run for president.
Following Reuters report, CBS News quoted a “source close to Huckabee” as saying that “there are certainly people that have asked him to reconsider his decision, even more so lately, but at this point that is not something he is doing.” Huckabee’s political action committee director, Hogan Gidley, also denied that he was reviewing his decision. “If this proves true, I’ll take you to the nicest dinner you want to go to,” he told a CBS News contributor.
Although a frontrunner in many GOP presidential candidate polls at the time, Huckabee said on his Fox News TV show in May that he would not seek nomination. “I don’t expect everyone to understand this, but I’m a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ. And that relationship is far more important to me than any political office.”
Huckabee also said that his decision was “not a political one, it is not a financial one, it is not even a practical one, it is a spiritual one. All the factors say go, but my heart says no, and that’s the decision I’ve made … I know for now, my answer is clear and firm, I will not seek the Republican nomination for president this year.”
