Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee (born August 24, 1955, Hope, Arkansas, U.S.) is an American politician who served as governor of Arkansas (1996–2007) and who unsuccessfully ran for the 2008 and 2016 Republican U.S. presidential nomination. In 2024 President-elect Donald Trump picked Huckabee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel in his upcoming administration.

Education and early career

The first male member of his family to finish high school, Huckabee graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in 1975 and received a master’s degree from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1980. He then became an ordained Baptist minister and spent the next decade as a pastor in various Arkansas churches and as an executive in local media companies.

Governor of Arkansas

Huckabee’s interest in serving a larger public role was stoked in 1989 when he was elected president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. He turned to politics in 1992 but lost his bid for the U.S. Senate. The following year Huckabee won a special election to fill Arkansas’s vacant lieutenant governor’s seat after the previous tenant, Jim Guy Tucker, became governor following Bill Clinton’s ascent to the presidency. Tucker’s resignation in 1996 made Huckabee only the third Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction (1865–77). He was reelected to full terms in 1998 and 2002.

As governor, Huckabee instituted wide-scale changes to the state’s health care system, education programs, and environmental policies. Having served his state’s gubernatorial maximum of two consecutive four-year terms, Huckabee’s successful tenure ended in 2007. He gained national attention in 2004 by losing more than 110 pounds after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes; he documented his weight loss in his book Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork: A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle (2005). Huckabee’s other writings included Character Is the Issue: How People with Integrity Can Revolutionize America (1997), Living Beyond Your Lifetime: How to Be Intentional About the Legacy You Leave (2000), From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 Steps to Restoring America’s Greatness (2007), Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America (2008), God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy (2015), and The Three Cs That Made America Great: Christianity, Capitalism, and the Constitution (2020; written with Steve Feazel).

2008 presidential election

In 2007 Huckabee announced that he was running for president in 2008. His campaign platform emphasized education reform, the repeal of federal income and payroll taxes in favor of a flat national sales tax, and an opposition to abortion rights. Although he was initially seen as a dark horse candidate, his campaign received a boost in January 2008 when he finished first in the Iowa caucuses. As the primary season progressed, Huckabee remained in third place in most national polls. However, wins in a number of Southern states on Super Tuesday in early February drew attention to his ability to influence the ultimate outcome of the race. He ended his bid for the White House after convincing wins by John McCain in a number of early March 2008 primaries made it mathematically impossible for him to gain the nomination.

Later activities and second presidential bid

Huckabee subsequently became a contributor to the Fox News Channel, and his eponymous show debuted on that channel in September 2008. The following year he also began hosting the radio program The Huckabee Report, and he launched another radio show in 2012. Amid growing speculation that he would run for president in 2016, Huckabee began ending his various media ventures, and the final episode of his Fox program aired in January 2015.

Four months later Huckabee announced his candidacy for president. However, amid a crowded Republican field, he failed to gain much support. After a poor showing in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Huckabee suspended his campaign. He subsequently endorsed Donald Trump, who became the Republican nominee and was the eventual presidential winner. Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, worked on Trump’s campaign and later served as White House press secretary before becoming governor of Arkansas. In 2017 the show Huckabee returned to television, airing on the Christian-based Trinity Broadcast Network.

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Mike Huckabee remained a backer of Trump, who was reelected to a second, nonconsecutive term in 2024. Shortly thereafter Trump announced that he was nominating Huckabee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel; the post requires Senate confirmation. Huckabee is a staunch supporter of Israel, especially in the country’s war with Hamas.