WASHINGTON -- Advisers to former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee are urging him to run again in 2016, pointing to polls that show him ahead in Iowa.
But the former Arkansas governor would need to shore up support from Christian conservative political activists -- Huckabee finished third Saturday at the annual Values Voter Summit presidential straw poll in Washington.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the son of an evangelical minister, shared his testimony with the group and claimed 25 percent of the vote. Cruz also won the 2013 presidential straw poll. Maryland neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who spoke at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, skipped the event but captured 20 percent.
Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister who addressed the activists Friday evening, received 12 percent. A total of 901 people voted in this year's straw poll.
At the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Huckabee also met with key players from his 2008 presidential bid: campaign manager Chip Saltsman, pollster and senior adviser Bob Wickers and press secretary Alice Stewart.
At a news conference, Huckabee said he will make a decision "early in the next year."
"It'll be a personal decision based on whether I feel I can contribute to the race, see a pathway to victory and believe deep in my heart-of-hearts it's the right thing to do," he said.
Afterward, in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Huckabee spoke more about his timetable.
"I think early spring, I've got to make the call one way or another," he said.
Among other things, Huckabee said he has to determine whether he can raise enough money to be competitive.
To win, "It'll take a whole lot more money than I had the last time," Huckabee said. "You've got to get the money in large quantities and you have to get it early."
The nation, he noted, has changed since 2008. It's "more divided, more polarized, more in need of a message that brings people to a point of hope," Huckabee said. "Fear is not a long-term motivator that gets people ready to go vote. It make them angry, it makes them really fearful about the future, but I think the winning path is hope and optimism."
All three former campaign staff members said Friday that Huckabee would be a viable candidate.
"He's leading in the early states, no question about it," Wickers said.
Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses despite being heavily outspent, remains popular in the state, pollsters say.
A September CNN/ORC poll of 310 registered Iowa Republicans put Huckabee ahead with 21 percent of the vote; Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party's 2012 vice presidential nominee, had 12 percent. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.
An August poll for USA Today also had Huckabee leading in Iowa. Seven other polls this year have shown Huckabee ahead or tied in Iowa, according to realclearpolitics.com.
Since his last race, Huckabee has remained visible.
Among other things, Huckabee has hosted a weekly show on Fox News and had his own radio broadcasts. He's raised money and campaigned for candidates across the country.
Supporters say Huckabee's stronger now than in 2008.
"He doesn't start out as an asterisk [in the polls]" Saltsman said in an interview. "His brand today is a whole lot stronger than it was eight years ago in all the right ways."
"I think he should run, and I hope he does," Saltsman said.
The Values Voter Summit was a springboard for Huckabee's first presidential campaign, and he's been a perennial favorite here -- he finished second in the 2007 presidential straw poll and was first in 2009 and second in 2010.
Attendees gave him a standing ovation Friday night and applauded when he urged Christians to change Washington.
"Imagine what would happen if the people of faith, if the value voters of America, the evangelical, the pro-life and pro-family Catholics and Protestants all over this country would let it be known we are registered and we will show up, we would hire good people and we would fire people that should have been fired a long time ago," Huckabee said.
But Cruz stirred the audience when he spoke of Iran and Sudan imprisoning people for being Christians.
Cruz, the son of a Cuban refugee, said his father had been locked up by a repressive regime.
"And yet even when he was in that Cuban jail, God was with him. By all rights, my father should have perished there, but God's hand brought him from captivity to freedom. God's grace brought him to the United States of America," Cruz said.
The senator assured the audience that "God isn't done with America yet."
When the results of this year's poll were announced, the crowd cheered the news that Cruz had won.
A survey showed that "protecting religious liberty" was the issue that mattered most to people at this year's Values Voter Summit, ahead of abortion, national security, repealing the health care law and prohibiting same-sex marriage.
"I wasn't surprised that Cruz won. If anything, I was surprised that the margin wasn't even greater," said Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association.
Fischer, who hosts a conservative radio program, said evangelicals are looking for a "strong, articulate, unashamed, unapologetic, bold declaration of the truth, and that's the message that Sen. Cruz delivers."
"I think Ted Cruz is an exceptionally strong candidate ... Gov. Huckabee may have a little bit of trouble getting some traction in 2016," he said.
But other Christian conservatives say Huckabee's still their choice. Elizabeth Newlun, an administrative assistant at Ecclesia College in Springdale, said she cast her ballot for her fellow Arkansan.
"I've been a fan for quite some time. He's a godly man, so I'm hoping this time, God says that it's OK for him to run," Newlun said.
Jim Bob Duggar, a former Arkansas legislator and star of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting, said he voted the same way.
"Gov. Huckabee has the communication skills of President Ronald Reagan. He's a great leader ... I really believe he'll be the next president," Duggar said.
Metro on 09/28/2014