For Mike Huckabee, it may be the journey — not the destination
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Version 0 of 1. “You’ve got a train coming through here — either that, or that’s the whistle saying I’m done!” former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee told a Baptist congregation in Gaffney, S.C., last month, smiling at the locomotive hiss interrupting his speech. “Then you’ll really be saying, ‘Oh, praise the Lord.’ ” The worshipers at the Cherokee Avenue Baptist Church laughed on cue as the Republican presidential candidate peppered them with jokes, folksy takes on scripture and anecdotes about his days as a young Baptist pastor. It was a “campaign stop,” sure, but he barely mentioned politics while he stood onstage at the front of the wood-paneled gymnasium. That didn’t seem like the point. For the most part, life on the road for Huckabee is good, clean fun — but not obviously helping him get any closer to the GOP nomination. He rode an insurgent win in the 2008 Iowa caucuses all the way to second place, in terms of delegates, in the Republican race. But this year, he has remained in the shadows of the unexpected rise of outsider candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Somehow, he keeps on chugging. [Why aren’t the GOP stragglers dropping out?] “I like to hunt, and I like to fish,” he told the church audience in his Arkansas twang. “I like to deer hunt, I like to turkey hunt, and I really love to duck hunt. I believe the first day in heaven is a flooded-timber duck hunt for hours. I don’t know what your first day in heaven is. That’s up to you and the Lord.” Would-be voters munched on fried alligator, potato salad and fresh rolls as the jovial former governor, quite a few pounds heavier than during his last presidential bid, picked up a bass guitar to join the local church band for a song. Flanked by two deer trophies, they played “Takin’ Care of Business.” An oversize American flag hung behind them. Huckabee has a knack for inserting himself in the conversation, and sometimes it’s serious. Earlier this year, he roused supporters and critics alike when he said the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” He was also at the center of the media attention surrounding the arrest of Kim Davis, the court clerk in Kentucky who refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. And on Twitter this week, he called on newly elected House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to take decisive action to prevent Syrian refugees from entering the United States, or “step down today & let someone else lead.” Huckabee has maintained an aggressive travel agenda throughout the early-voting states, attending community dinners, shaking hands with voters and hunting with fellow politicians — for ducks and pheasants, if not for votes. None of it has gotten him very far. To hear Huckabee tell it, his next big upset is right around the corner. But a glance at the polls indicates that his candidacy is not gaining traction. The former governor ranks ninth in a national polling average tracked by Real Clear Politics, and he hovers around eighth place in Iowa — and seventh in South Carolina. “This state likes Donald Trump,” said Scott Lambert, 31, in Gaffney. “The man just tells it like it is. But I don’t got nothing against” Huckabee. That perspective hasn’t stopped Huckabee from joyfully commemorating his adventures on social media. One short video posted on Twitter showcased his clean execution of a bird at close range during a pheasant hunt on Halloween: “This Iowa pheasant hunt not approved by @peta,” he wrote. Another post featured a selfie taken at a laundromat with his body man, Steele Shippy. “On a 9-day trip we ran out of clean clothes in Sioux City, IA. . . . #campaignlife.” A tweet last week showed him touring a guitar shop in Milwaukee ahead of the fourth Republican debate — for which he was relegated, for the first time, to the undercard. “I appreciate his strong stand on conservatism. I don’t often hear somebody speak so fully about the views that I have,” Ruth Bastian said after seeing Huckabee talk at the Grapevine restaurant in Boiling Springs, S.C. “We are not decided right now, but we are certainly shopping around. It does make an impact to be in his presence.” She added: “On TV, I hear a lot about Donald Trump and Ben Carson. I haven’t heard that much about Mike Huckabee.” The former governor has been able to remain a steady presence in Iowa, South Carolina and elsewhere despite low fundraising numbers — just $1.2 million last quarter. But he has not raised enough cash to invest in the sort of aggressive campaign infrastructure many of the top-tier candidates have built. His expenses, about $1.3 million last quarter, have primarily been travel and payroll. The campaign did not respond to questions about the size of its operation. (For contrast, Carson raised $20 million during the third quarter.) Even in the face of such competition, Huckabee has stayed dismissive of any skepticism about his path forward, saying he has no intention of dropping out of the race anytime soon. But the questions can draw out a darker side: After addressing the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines this month, Huckabee had a terse exchange with a reporter. “You’re now in the undercard debate. How long can you keep this campaign going?” the reporter asked. Huckabee’s curt response: “How long can you keep your job?” The former governor left a lucrative perch at Fox News in January after more than six years on the air to pursue this second presidential run, a move that came with plenty of sacrifices: perhaps most immediately, an enormous salary made all the sweeter after years as a public servant. But it’s not hard to see why he’s still at it — he clearly enjoys it. Even without strong support in the polls, Huckabee’s affable presence never fails to summon laughs and handshakes. And privately, some strategists and pundits point out that even with his long odds, participating in this campaign will give him more mileage for book deals and lucrative speaking appearances in the future. “I’ve been knocked down before, but so have a lot of American people. . . . People are working jobs they never thought they’d have to work just to make a living,” he told reporters. “So, you know, I’ll be able to identify with a whole lot of the country.” After Fox Business Network relegated him to the little-watched undercard debate last week, Huckabee bemoaned the premium that has been placed this election cycle on inexperienced candidates during his speech to about 1,500 conservative Christians in Des Moines. “The point is, none of us are getting in an airplane and let somebody crawl in the cockpit who has never sat in a cockpit and flown an airplane.” He elaborated backstage to reporters after the event, still without directly referencing any opponents: “At some point we come down and ask, is the presidency an entry-level job? If it is, then elect whoever you want. I realize a lot of people say, ‘We don’t want experience!’ Okay, fine. But you won’t even hire someone to mow your lawn that’s never started a lawn mower.” Huckabee — with one of the most accomplished résumés in the GOP field — maintains that he was worse off eight years ago in the runup to the Iowa caucuses. “In many ways, I feel like I’m the luckiest guy on Earth. I really do,” he said at the debate in Milwaukee. “It’s a long way from a little brick rent house on 2nd Street in Hope, Ark., to this stage where I’m running for president of the United States.” |