Mike Huckabee  Michael Dale Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician and Christian minister who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination in both 2008 and 2016. He is the host of the talk show "Huckabee", which ran on the Fox News Channel from 2008–2015, and currently runs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, simulcast on Newsmax TV. He paused the show in January 2015 in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. From April 2012 through December 2013, he hosted a daily radio program, "The Mike Huckabee Show", on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks. Huckabee is the author of several best-selling books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister noted for his evangelical views, a musician, and a public speaker. He was also a political commentator on "The Huckabee Report." In the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Huckabee won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and finished second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won, behind John McCain and Mitt Romney. Huckabee ran again for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, but withdrew early in the primary following a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucus. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served two years as President Donald Trump's White House Press Secretary. Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955, in Hope, Arkansas, the son of Dorsey Wiles Huckabee (1923-1996) and his wife Mae (Elder) Huckabee (1925-1999), conservative Southern Democrats. Huckabee is of English, German, and Scots-Irish ancestry, with roots in America dating to the Colonial Era. He has cited his working-class upbringing as the reason for his political views; his father worked as a fireman and mechanic, and his mother worked as a clerk at a gas company. His first job, when he was 14, was at a radio station, where he read the news and weather. He was elected governor of Arkansas by his chapter of the American Legion-sponsored Boys State program in 1972. He was student council vice president at Hope High School during the 1971–72 school year. He was student council president at Hope High School during the 1972–73 school year. He has one sister, Pat Harris, a middle school teacher. He entered the ministry in 1972 at Garrett Memorial Baptist Church in Hope. Huckabee married Janet McCain on May 25, 1974. He graduated from Ouachita Baptist University on May 8, 1978, completing his bachelor's degree in religion before attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.