The former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate said he will announce his decision in his hometown of Hope, Ark.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has announced that he will inform supporters on May 5 during a visit to his hometown of Hope — which is also the hometown of former President Bill Clinton — whether or not he plans to run for president.
Huckabee last ran for president in 2008, and enjoyed plenty of grassroots support but ultimately lacked the funding to beat out better-financed rivals including eventual 2008 and 2012 GOP nominees Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, according to an Associated Press report.
Huckabee stepped down from his show on Fox News earlier this year in order to consider a White House bid, and he has been attempting to put the financial structure in place that would allow him to make a deep run in the GOP nomination fight.
In an interview with Fox News yesterday, he said that he would make his decision official while visiting Hope on May 5.
“There’s going to be an announcement that day, and everyone will know after then for sure whether Mike Huckabee is in the race or not,” he said.
Before the interview with Fox News, he met with reporters in Washington, D.C., to talk about his potential campaign and what lessons he took from his 2008 bid. He said that cash would be the necessary factor that could put his campaign over the top, and he needed to make sure he had the structure in place to raise the necessary capital to compete with the big dogs, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, widely presumed to be the frontrunner.
Huckabee was one of the lower-funded candidates in 2008, spending just $1 million and becoming a contender for a little while before he ceded the nomination to McCain. He said his 2016 campaign will need “a whole lot more money,” according to the report.
In the meantime, he’s been reaching out to donors to figure out how much funding he could raise in order to keep the campaign from running out of steam, saying that he doesn’t want to “jump in a pool that doesn’t have any water in it.”
Huckabee said he would likely rely on a super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited money, although it cannot coordinate with his campaign after he declares his candidacy.
