HOPE -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday launched his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination by saying he wants to lead the nation to "higher ground" and stressing his blue-collar roots.
"I have never been and I am not going to be the favorite candidate of those in the Washington-to-Wall Street corridor of power," the 59-year-old former Baptist minister told an estimated 2,500 people who packed into Hempstead Hall on the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope campus.
"I will be funded and fueled not by the billionaires but by working people across America who will find out that $15- and $25-a-month contributions can take us from hope to higher ground," Huckabee said.
When Huckabee sought the presidency in 2008, he announced his candidacy on NBC's Meet the Press. This time, he made his formal announcement in the southwest Arkansas town where both he and former President Bill Clinton were born.
Huckabee said he "walked away from my own income" to run for president again, and "I don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer-funded paycheck to live off of."
In January, Huckabee left Fox News and his weekly talk show, Huckabee, after six years so he could focus on his political options. Last month, he announced that his nationally syndicated radio commentary would no longer be broadcast starting this month.
"I don't come from a family dynasty, but a working family. I grew up blue collar and not blue blood," said Huckabee, who served as Arkansas' governor from 1996-2007.
In 2008, Huckabee lost his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and raised a lot less money than U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; a lack of campaign funds hindered him at key points in the race.
He built a home on the Florida panhandle after joining Fox News. He and his wife, Janet, became Florida voters in 2010.
In Tuesday's speech, Huckabee said that Barack Obama made great speeches about hope and change eight years ago during his successful presidential bid.
But he said the nation's debt has more than doubled, America's leadership in the world has evaporated, the country is more polarized than ever in his lifetime, and 93 million Americans don't have jobs and many others have lost their benefits during Obama's presidency.
"We were promised hope. But it was just talk. Now, we need the kind of change that really could get America from hope to higher ground," he said.
As Arkansas governor, Huckabee said, he "challenged the deeply entrenched political machine that ran this state" with an Arkansas Legislature dominated by Democrats.
"It was tough sledding, but I learned how to govern and I learned how to lead, and even in that environment we passed 94 tax cuts, rebuilt our road system, saw dramatic improvements in student tests scores, and fought the corruption of the good ol' boy system so that working-class people would finally be given a fair shake," he said.
The community college -- tucked on the southern edge of a small, southern town -- reached overflow parking hours before Huckabee took to the stage to announce his second bid for president. The town's population is 10,095.
Boy Scouts and high-schoolers mixed in with veterans and gray-haired supporters as they made their way to their seats. In the event center's lobby, supporters in suits and red ties stood beside Huckabee backers in khaki shorts, denim, and all manner of red-white-and-blue-themed attire.
The hall, bathed in a glow of red and blue lights from the stage, was checkered by red and blue signs that read "I Like Mike," and the theme from the governor's speech, "Hope to Higher Ground."
After a Huckabee-tailored version of the hit "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," singer Tony Orlando got the crowd chanting "U-S-A" and then "We Like Mike" -- a line that brought most of the hall to its feet.
If he's elected president, Huckabee said, veterans will be treated with the dignity they deserve and not "left on the streets and in waiting rooms to rot," and Social Security recipients will get the benefits that they paid for.
He said he would launch "a curative approach to health care and save money and lives -- not just save a bunch of government programs."
"Instead of helping families find affordable health, we created a monster that forces us to buy coverage that we don't want, don't need and can't afford," Huckabee said, referring to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by Obama in 2010.
Huckabee also said he would confront Islamic extremists.
Under his presidency, he said, "I promise you that we will no longer merely try to contain jihadism.
"We will conquer it," Huckabee said.
"We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with snakes. And let there be no doubt, Israel will know, as will the whole world, that we are their trusted friend, and the ayatollahs of Iran will know that hell will freeze over before they ever get a nuclear weapon. And I will never ever apologize for America," he said.
Huckabee lamented that the nation has "lost our way morally.
"We have witnessed the slaughter of over 55 million babies in the name of choice, and we are now threatening the foundation of religious liberty by criminalizing Christianity in demanding that we abandon biblical principles of natural marriage," he said.
"Many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of judicial supremacy, which would allow black-robed and unelected judges the power to make law as well as enforce it, upending the equality of our three branches of government as well the separation of powers so very central to our Constitution," Huckabee said.
"The Supreme Court is not the supreme being, and they can't overturn the laws of nature or of nature's God," he said.
Huckabee's comments came after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week about whether state bans on same-sex marriage are permitted under the Constitution. The court is likely to rule before it recesses at the end of June.
Huckabee also said that if elected, he would fight for term limits on all three branches of government.
"If you live off the government payroll and you want to run for an office other than the one you're elected to, then at least have the integrity and decency to resign the one you don't want anymore and pursue the one you decided you'd rather have," he said.
A few presidential candidates are currently serving in the U.S. Senate: Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, Texas Republican Ted Cruz, Florida Republican Marco Rubio and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Huckabee also criticized one of the nation's Cabinet agencies.
The U.S. Department of Education "has flunked and ... needs to be expelled," Huckabee said, and education policy should be set by states, school boards and parents.
"We need to address the immigration issues, but not with amnesty. ... We need to start by taking control of our own borders," Huckabee said.
As president, he said, he would work to pass the fair tax, "which would no longer penalize people's work, their savings, their investments or their good stewardship," and he would eliminate "the biggest bully in America, the IRS." The fair tax is a national sales tax.
Huckabee said his late father would have seen him become Arkansas' 44th governor in 1996 if he had lived four months longer.
"But I've always wanted to feel that he did see that moment from the best seat in the house," he said, pointing heavenward. "And I hope he's able to watch in January of 2017, when that bashful little kid from the orange-brick rent house on Second Street is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States."
Earlier, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the crowd that he's supporting Huckabee's bid for president.
"We need a leader of our country who is steady on their feet, steady with their convictions, has a vision for America, who has good conservative values and who is a proven leader," he said. "Mike Huckabee has every one of those qualities.
"Mike and Janet, we are here today to tell you that Arkansas is on your side," Hutchinson said.
After Huckabee announced his campaign for president, five of the state's other Republican constitutional officers said they are supporting him.
They are Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, who is a volunteer senior adviser for the Huckabee campaign; Secretary of State Mark Martin; Attorney General Leslie Rutledge; state Treasurer Dennis Milligan; and Land Commissioner John Thurston.
State Auditor Andrea Lea said she hasn't decided which Republican presidential candidate to support because the field of candidates is still developing.
Last month, a spokesman for Hutchinson said the governor supports legislation that would shift Arkansas' presidential primary election from May to March and would like to see the issue addressed in a special legislative session. Such legislation would allow Arkansas to join other Southern states in a regional presidential primary.
Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said Tuesday that the governor hasn't decided when or whether he would call such a special session.
Information for this article was contributed by Spencer Willems of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 05/06/2015
