Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!
0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8d8c0001Click on a photo to find stories by candidate:0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8d8c0002More Content:Our Voters Guide provides an overview of all you need to know about the 2016 N.H. Presidential Primary.Click here to explore a calendar of candidate visits and other Primary campaign events.Click here for our Money in Politics stories and data interactives.Visit our Where They Stand series for an overview of the candidates' positions on key policy questions.Visit our series Primary Backstage to learn about the people and places that make the N.H. Primary tick.To see NHPR photos from the campaign trail, visit our Primary 2016 album on Flickr.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee Announces Presidential Run

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
J. David Ake
/
AP
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced Tuesday that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

"It seems perfectly fitting that it would be here that I announce that I am a candidate for president of the United States of America," he told a crowd of supporters in his hometown of Hope, Ark., which is also Bill Clinton's hometown.

Huckabee, who previously ran for the presidency in 2008, hosted a television program on Fox News until January, when he ended the eponymous show to consider his political future.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, joins a crowded Republican field. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky have already announced their candidacies. On Monday, they were joined in the race by neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Scott Walker of Wisconsin are also expected to join the fray, along with others.

Huckabee is in sixth place among GOP presidential hopefuls in the most recent average of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. But all of them trail former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, right now in the polls.

The former Arkansas governor came to national prominence in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, and for a period, he was among the Republican front-runners. (The GOP nomination eventually went to Sen. John McCain.)

"His manner and appearance are reassuringly ordinary," Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in The New Yorker at the time. "When he smiles or laughs, which is often, his dimpled face looks interestingly like that of Wallace, of Wallace & Gromit."

For more on Huckabee, please see the post 5 Things You Should Know About Mike Huckabee on our It's all Politics blog.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.