Why Mike Huckabee Is a Long Shot in GOP Primary

Mike Huckabee ran an outstanding presidential campaign in 2008. He entered the Republican primary race as a barely-known former Arkansas governor with little support from key GOP officials or major donors. By the end, Huckabee had won the very competitive Iowa caucuses, carried seven other states and essentially finished tied for second in the primary with Mitt Romney, as Arizona Sen. John McCain became the Republican nominee.
But in that race, Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, struggled to win voters outside of his base of conservative Republicans and evangelical Christians and states in the South and Midwest where those two blocs make up a plurality of the electorate.