Huckabee joins 2016 race for White House

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and guitar-strumming Baptist preacher, has entered the 2016 race for the White House, becoming the sixth Republican to join the growing ranks of GOP presidential contenders.

Launching his campaign in his home town of Hope, Arkansas, Mr Huckabee said he would bring "the kind of change that could bring America from hope to higher ground". In a speech that described Washington as a "roach motel", he vowed to raise wages and scrap the Internal Revenue Service, as well as take a tougher stance on Iran and jihadi terrorism.

"We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes," said Mr Huckabee, before adding later that "the Ayatollahs of Iran will know that Hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon."

The folksy social conservative is running eight years after his first White House bid. In 2008, Mr Huckabee generated early momentum by winning the Iowa Republican caucus due to strong support from evangelical Christians who are critical in the first poll on the US primary calendar.

"This exceptional country could only be explained by the providence of almighty God," Mr Huckabee said on Tuesday.

In 2008, he finished a distant second to John McCain, the Arizona senator, after running out of cash amid a struggle to create support beyond Iowa and the southern bible-belt states. After his loss, he converted his newfound fame into a television show called "Huckabee" on Fox News. For a while, he also earned money by endorsing a controversial and unproven diabetes drug.

In entering the GOP field, Mr Huckabee is following three senators - Ted Cruz from Texas, Rand Paul from Kentucky and Marco Rubio from Florida - in addition to Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon.

While no serious contender has emerged to challenge Hillary Clinton, the former New York Democratic senator, more than a dozen Republicans are expected to run for president. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, and Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, are expected to enter the race in coming months. Other possible contenders are Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who ran in 2012, Ohio governor John Kasich, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina senator.

Mr Huckabee has broad appeal with evangelicals. But he will face tougher competition for votes from social conservatives than in 2008 because of contenders such as Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio.

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But while few observers think Mr Huckabee has a serious chance in such a competitive field, his views on social issues such as gay marriage could force the more centrist Republicans to move to the right on positions to win over the conservative base that could later hurt them in the general election.

The Republican governors of Arkansas and Indiana were recently forced to reverse course on controversial religious freedom laws after widespread criticism that the measures would discriminate against gay people.

Mr Huckabee is an economic populist who has been criticised by some conservatives for raising taxes and supporting big government. In an effort to blunt those criticisms, he said on Tuesday that "common sense tells us that the best government is the most local and most limited". In the past, he has flip-flopped on issues such as immigration to appease some conservatives, but is a consistently staunch opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage.

Mr Huckabee has been promoting his new book God, Guns, Grit and Gravy which touts the values of the "flyover" middle states that are far from Los Angeles, Washington and New York. He describes feeling "out of place" in Washington, a city where "nothing productive ever happens", but jokes that "there's only one address in that city that I'd probably want to relocate to."

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