WASHINGTON – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Saturday he will not run for the Republican presidential nomination, a significant development that removes one of the potential front-runners from contention and brings the slow-moving GOP primary process into sharper focus.
“All the factors say go, but my heart says no and that’s the decision I have made,” Huckabee said at the end of his hour-long weekly television program on Fox News.
Huckabee spent a few minutes knocking down rumors that had flown about why he would or would not run for president. He said his wife and children had encouraged him to run. He said the polls had shown he could be a serious contender and that he could win voters outside the south and in addition to social conservatives. And despite his well-known aversion to asking for money, he said he had become convinced he could raise the necessary money.
"I had come to believe I would be in the race," Huckabee said.
"The external signs … point strongly toward running," he said. "But only when I was alone, in quiet and reflective moments, did I have not only clarity but an inexplicable inner peace."
Huckabee said his decision was not financial, but the wealthy he has generated off book sales and his contract with Fox News -- and the ongoing construction on an expensive home in Florida -- will doubtless be considered by many a major factor in why he did not run.
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