Huckabee Not Ruling Out No. 2 Spot on Ballot

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Huckabee Drops Out of Presidential Race

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) withdrew his candidacy from Irving, Tex. after Tuesday's primary election results indicated McCain would reach the needed delegate count to win the Republican nomination.

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A Jan. 19 loss in South Carolina, where the former governor expected to do well, was crippling. Fundraising dried up, resulting in the layoff of campaign staffers and a reduced advertising budget.

But Huckabee again surprised many people in the Super Tuesday primary contests on Feb. 5, when he won in five states, effectively knocking out Romney from the race. Huckabee got the one-on-one matchup with McCain he had been seeking all along, but it was too late. Key party figures, such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, started urging him to drop out.

Huckabee dismissed such challenges, determined to fight on until McCain clinched the nomination. Over the past two weeks, as more of the party rallied around McCain, Huckabee was not able to raise enough money to compete. By Sunday, he started preparing to leave the race.

Whether Huckabee has reached his political peak remains to be seen. Though he won eight contests in the GOP primary race, he largely failed to expand his appeal beyond Southerners, conservative Christians and backers of his proposal to create a national sales tax.

"He was kind of caught in a Catch-22," said Randy Brinson, a social conservative activist who advised Huckabee on his outreach to evangelicals. "The message that was resonating with the voters who supported him was the faith message. He had a broader agenda, but they weren't as endeared of that. In trying to balance that, there was some difficulty."

Whatever his future in elective politics, Huckabee became a political leader in a conservative evangelical movement that is going through a generational change, shifting its focus from issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion to global warming and poverty.

"Not everybody in the conservative or conservative Christian movement supported him," said Andrea Lafferty, a social conservative activist who was neutral in the GOP race. "But there was a strong respect for him and an appreciation for some of the issues he brought to the forefront."