Thread: Huckabee: 'I'm not getting out of the race'

Huckabee: 'I'm not getting out of the race'

Kathy A. Bolten, kbolten@dmreg.com
2:11 p.m. CST February 1, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was greeted with chants of “We like Mike” Sunday evening before the exclusive showing of the movie “God’s Not Dead 2,” in which he makes a cameo appearance.

Huckabee’s campaign sponsored the free showing of the movie, which is slated for release in April. Originally, only one screen at Jordan Creek Town Center’s Century Theaters was going to be rented. But demand was so great for tickets, that two screens were leased, campaign officials said.

Huckabee reminded the more than 800 people at the theaters to caucus for him on Monday night.

“If you don’t pledge to do that, we won’t let you out of here until after the caucuses are over,” he joked.

At an earlier event on Sunday, Huckabee was cheered when he emphatically told the group of about 150 people that he wasn’t dropping out of the race. A Fox News commentator on Sunday said that Huckabee was going to endorse one of the other Republicans running for president, the candidate said.

“I’m not getting out of the race,” Huckabee said to applause and cheers. “I’m staying in and I’m going to do great tomorrow night and keep going and win the White House.”

Republican front-runner Donald Trump is holding a campaign event in Little Rock, Ark. on Wednesday, which may have fueled some speculation that Huckabee was going to endorse the business entrepreneur. Huckabee said he will be in South Carolina on Wednesday.

Huckabee, during an interview, said he believes some of the rumors are coming from other campaigns.

“There are clear efforts being made by some who are saying a vote for me or Rick Santorum is a wasted vote,” Huckabee said. “That’s nonsense. It’s an insult to the voters of Iowa to tell them if they vote their convictions…that they’ve wasted their vote.”

Huckabee acknowledged in his afternoon event that his poll numbers have registered in the low single numbers.

But, he said, many Iowans haven’t yet made up their minds on who to support in the caucuses.

A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll released Saturday showed that 45 percent of caucusgoers could be persuaded to change their minds before caucus voting. The poll showed Huckabee with 2 percent of support.

One of the movie-goers, Sheila Stielow of Des Moines, said she didn’t realize Huckabee was still in the race. “I thought he dropped out,” said Stielow, who added she hasn’t decided whom to support.

Retired teacher Mary Hare of Des Moines, a Huckabee supporter, plans to caucus for the former Arkansas governor. “I don’t think he’s gotten the same respect as other candidates have,” she said.

Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses, told supporters at the coffee shop that the way to “win the caucus is the old fashioned way – hard work and a lot of handshaking.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley introduced Huckabee Sunday afternoon. Grassley has appeared with several candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination and after he spoke, reiterated that he isn’t endorsing any candidate.

He told The Des Moines Register he’s appearing at the different rallies to encourage Iowans to attend the caucus.

“People in the other 49 states don’t think we should be first in the nation and I want to prove to the rest of the country that we take this very seriously and we intend to maintain this position,” Grassley said.

At the events

SETTING: Meeting room at Inspired Grounds Cafe, 117 Fifth St. West Des Moines and Century Theaters at Jordan Creek Town Center.

CROWD: Standing room only crowd of about 150 at the coffee shop; more than 800 at the movie theaters.
REACTION: Crowd at the coffee shop cheered when Huckabee, in a reference to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said, “We know what happens when you bring into the White House an untested freshman senator.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Huckabee will attend a caucus night event at Noah's Event Venue, 1805 90th Street, West Des Moines on Monday. The event begins at 7:30 p.m.; Huckabee is expected to appear later in the evening.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...uses/79607306/

Mike Huckabee drops out of 2016 presidential race

By Eric Bradner and Mark Preston, CNN
Updated 10:50 PM ET, Mon February 1, 2016 | Video Source: CNN

(CNN)Mike Huckabee is dropping his presidential campaign after a weak showing in the Iowa caucuses that he had won eight years earlier.

"I am officially suspending my campaign," the former Arkansas governor tweeted Monday night. "Thank you for all your loyal support. #ImWithHucK"


Huckabee's decision to suspend the campaign was not planned, but after seeing the results he decided it was best to step out of the race.

"He is going to continue to push for the issues he believes, but right now this is about thanking his staff and supporters and being with his friends and families and see what doors will open next," said Hogan Gidley, Huckabee's spokesman.

Huckabee is "not even thinking about an endorsement at this time," Gidley added.

For Huckabee, it is a disappointing end to what could be his last bid for public office by the second-most famous politician from Hope, Arkansas.

A 60-year-old Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee first entered office in 1993, when he won a special election for lieutenant governor of Arkansas -- a job that opened up as part of the domino effect of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton being elected president.

He became governor in 1996, when Clinton's former lieutenant governor Jim Guy Tucker was convicted as part of the Whitewater controversy. He was elected to four-year terms of his own in 1998 and again in 2002.

After Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign sputtered out despite his win in Iowa, Huckabee joined Fox News and hosted a weekend program. He passed on another campaign in 2012, and left Fox News early in 2015.

His 2016 campaign -- much like another former Iowa caucuses winner, former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 victor Rick Santorum -- encountered two insurmountable forces: Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Trump upended the GOP campaign and pulled in populists who had previously been attracted to Huckabee's stances on trade deals and his opposition to changes to entitlement programs like Social Security. Cruz, meanwhile, pried away Huckabee's support among evangelical voters.

He attracted his share of controversy during his 2016 bid -- most notably by denouncing President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal by declaring, in a reference to the Holocaust, that Obama "will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."

Huckabee had tried in recent weeks to chip into Cruz's lead among socially conservative voters, questioning the freshman Texas senator's commitment to causes important to them.

"Ted Cruz has changed his positions on ethanol, immigration, H-1B visas. He's changed it on whether marriage is a state or a federal issue. He's changed it on whether he's going to be a real champion for religious liberty or whether that's going to be way down the road and it's not important," Huckabee told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" last week.

But he couldn't gain enough steam to fend off Cruz or Trump -- who, in a brash appeal to the same people whose support Huckabee needed, plans to campaign Wednesday in Little Rock, Arkansas.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/01/politi...ace/index.html