Mike Huckabee

Politician 

Mike Huckabee became Governor of Arkansas on July 15, 1996. He moved up from lieutenant governor following the resignation of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. Huckabee became Arkansas' 44th elected governor after winning the November 1998 election with the highest percentage of the vote ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas. He was elected to another four-year term in November 2002.

Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is recognized as a national leader in the areas of education reform and health care reform. Huckabee became the chairman of the National Governors Association in July. He served as the leader of the nation's governors until July 2006. The NGA, founded in 1908, is the group through which the governors collectively influence the development of national policy. Huckabee has served in recent years as one of the NGA's lead governors on the issues of welfare reform and Medicaid reform.

Huckabee also is the chairman of the Education Commission of the States, a highly respected education policy organization. He led the ECS until July 2006. The ECS helps governors, legislators, state education officials and others identify, develop and implement public policies to improve student learning at all levels. The organization, which is based in Denver, was formed in 1965.

Arkansas' ACTAAP system is widely hailed as one of the nation's best school accountability programs. Huckabee has pushed through reforms in Arkansas that have significantly expanded the availability of college scholarships, increased the number of charter schools and established new approaches to workforce education. His Smart Start initiative placed a heavy emphasis on reading and mathematics for students from kindergarten through the fourth grade. He then created Smart Step, a similar emphasis for students from the fifth through the eighth grades. Student scores on standardized tests have risen steadily since the creation of Smart Start and Smart Step.

Huckabee became governor in July 1996 when his predecessor resigned. He was one of the youngest governors in the country at the time. Huckabee first was elected lieutenant governor in a 1993 special election and was elected to a full four-year term in 1994. He was only the fourth Republican to be elected to statewide office since Reconstruction. Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term as governor in 1998, attracting the largest percentage of the vote ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas, and was re-elected to another four-year term in November 2002. He's now the second longest-serving governor in the country. A significant part of his adult life was spent as a pastor and denominational leader. He became the youngest president ever of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the largest denomination in Arkansas. Huckabee led rapidly growing congregations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana. He said those experiences gave him a deep sense of the problems faced by individuals and families.

Huckabee's efforts to improve his own health have received national attention. Diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2003, he lost 110 pounds. In March 2005, Huckabee completed the Little Rock Marathon. The Road Runners Club of America named him its Southern Region Runner of the Year, and he was named USA Track & Field's Athlete of the Week for the country.

Huckabee's fourth book, Quit Digging Your Grave With A Knife And Fork, was released by Time Warner Book Group in May and has received favorable reviews across the country. Huckabee has traveled widely since the release of the book to speak on the need for Americans to change their lifestyles.

In 1996 during his first months in office, Huckabee led the fight for Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution. The amendment created a sales tax of one-eighth of a cent that benefits the state Department of Parks and Tourism, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. Proceeds from the amendment have allowed Arkansas to build the finest system of state parks in the country along with a system of state-of-the-art nature centers operated by the Game and Fish Commission. The first of those nature centers at Pine Bluff was named after the governor in recognition of his conservation efforts. Huckabee, a noted outdoorsman, was honored in 1997 as the American Sportfishing Association Man of the Year and was inducted in 2000 to the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame.

Mike Huckabee is the author of the recently published book, From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPs to Restoring America's Greatness.