Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who turned his stunning victory in the 2008 Iowa caucuses into a thriving talk-show career, is reconnecting with activists and enlisting staff to position himself in a growing field of potential Republican presidential candidates.
This week, Huckabee is leading more than 100 pastors and GOP insiders from early primary states on a 10-day overseas trip with stops in Poland and England.
Huckabee’s newly formed nonprofit advocacy group, America Takes Action, has begun to serve as an employment perch for his political team, recently bringing on a number of experienced campaign operatives.
Advisers are already scouting real estate in Little Rock for a possible presidential campaign headquarters.
Huckabee is scheduled to spend part of this month holding private meetings with powerful GOP financiers in Las Vegas, New York and California, gauging their interest in being bundlers for his possible campaign and asking for pledges of five-to-six-figure donations to his aligned organizations. And he is planning two strategy sessions next month, in Little Rock and Destin, Fla., near his new Gulf Coast home, to discuss timing, potential staffing and an opening pitch to voters.
In January, Huckabee will publish “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy,” his latest manifesto on politics and culture.
