The former Arkansas governor has launched his second attempt at getting the Republican nomination for the presidency.
At a rally in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, Mike Huckabee used the phrase “hope to higher ground” as a motif.
The bass guitar-playing, foreign policy hawk has had a media career since losing the nomination in 2008.
Mike Huckabee joins a crowded Republican field that includes three senators, a businesswoman and a neurosurgeon.
“Folks, it is a long way from a little brick rent house on Second Street in Hope, Arkansas to the White House,” he said.
“Here in this small town called Hope, I was raised to believe that where a person started didn’t mean that’s where he had to stop. I always believed that a kid could go from Hope to higher ground.”
After announcing his ambitions, the crowd erupted in cheers of “We want Mike!”
Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, acknowledged his pro-gun-ownership position, telling the audience about receiving a BB gun at the age of five.
He said the US Department of Education should be abolished, a position popular with conservatives who oppose recent national education reforms.
On immigration, Mike Huckabee said the US borders should be secured, but was short on details.
He also reaffirmed his steadfast opposition to same-gender marriage.
Early in his speech, Mike Huckabee noted that he was the first male in his family to graduate from high school.
“My dad wasn’t an educated man, but he was a smart man. And he and my mother didn’t have a whole lot, but they had honesty to the bone,” he said.
As his campaign gets under way, Mike Huckabee could face challenges within his own party.
Many conservatives will not like the fact that overall, taxes and spending went up during his time as Arkansas governor.
In 2008, Mike Huckabee won eight primaries in socially conservative states but this time he has vowed to focus more on the economy and national security.
To win the Republican crown, Mike Huckabee will have to overcome Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, as well as former Hewlett-Packard boss Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
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