Huckabee Visits Jonesboro In Fundraising Push

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee returned to Northeast Arkansas Wednesday to talk about his presidential campaign and key issues as part of a fundraising swing he’s making across Arkansas.

Huckabee, who served as governor from 1996 to 2007, made a fundraising stop to Jonesboro and spoke with reporters at the Jonesboro Regional Airport.

Huckabee told the group that had gathered at the airport that he “felt like he was back at home” in visiting Jonesboro.

The trip to Jonesboro has been one of several dozen in recent weeks since Huckabee announced he was making a second run for the Republican presidential nomination. Since Monday, Huckabee has visited New York, Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas.

The Florida trip centered around a summit held Tuesday in Orlando by Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., for Republican presidential candidates.

Huckabee said he and his campaign are focusing – as are other candidates – on the first four states on the calendar – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

He said Iowa and South Carolina are places “you have to focus on,” noting he has been very encouraged by the response he has received.

A May 25-29 poll from the Des Moines Register showed Huckabee tied with former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., in fourth place with 9%, behind Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisc. (17%), Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (10%), and Ben Carson (10%).

The same poll showed Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Caucus, with a 61% favorability rating, second only to Walker with a 66% rating.

NATIONAL ISSUES
Huckabee spoke on mostly economic issues during the Jonesboro press conference.

He said he believes the economy, especially in manufacturing, has been down in recent years.

“We have lost five million manufacturing jobs, along with 60,000 manufacturing plants. Also, we have an $11 trillion trade deficit with most of it coming from China,” Huckabee said. “The regulation and tax burden have been pretty much a gut punch to our economy.”

He said he also opposes the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, trade agreement.

“It is a secret deal and entrusts this President (Obama), the same President who gave us the IRS scandal and Fast and Furious,” Huckabee said. “I can’t understand why the Republican leadership (in Congress) is supporting this.”

He said he supports free, but fair trade.

A television reporter asked Huckabee about comments he made in February, reported Tuesday by The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C., about the issue of transgendered people using public restrooms and showers for the gender they identify with.

“Now, I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers [after gym class],” Huckabee told the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. “I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today,’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn’t it?

“For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended, and you can’t be offended if she’s greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee told the reporter that he is rarely asked about the comments on the campaign trail and that he was speaking about an “irrational public policy.”

He said voters have been more interested in “jobs and trade” when discussing issues.

LOCAL ISSUES
Huckabee also spoke about state issues during the visit.

He said he was proud of the work done by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to help bring a defense contract to South Arkansas.

The Arkansas General Assembly recently approved an $87 million bond issue to help Lockheed Martin secure the contract to build the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle at their Camden facility.

If Lockheed Martin receives the contract, at least 600 jobs with an average $35 million a year payroll would be created.

Huckabee said he visited the Lockheed Martin facility when he was governor and that the facility has faced difficulties due to federal sequestration and defense cuts.

As for the change of the Arkansas primary from May until March 1, 2016, Huckabee said the change will benefit voters.

He said Arkansas will be a “state in play” for 2016 in helping to determine the Republican and Democratic party nominees for 2016.

“Too often, the nominee was decided before Arkansas,” Huckabee said.

The former governor also spoke about the political shift from Democrat to Republican in Arkansas.

For several years, Huckabee was the only Republican statewide office holder in Arkansas.

In 2014, Republicans won all seven constitutional offices, all four U.S. House seats, a U.S. Senate seat as well as majorities in the state legislature.

Huckabee said he could remember traveling to Jonesboro and other areas of Northeast Arkansas when people would visit just “because they had never seen a Republican before.”

The change has also been felt on the county level as Republicans won quorum court majorities in Craighead and Greene counties, as well as countywide races in Craighead, Greene, Poinsett and Randolph counties last year.

“The landscape has definitely shifted,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee will visit Little Rock later today, El Dorado Thursday and Texarkana on Friday.