MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Michael Dale Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955 in Hope, Arkansas to Dorsey Wiles Huckabee, a fireman, and Mae Huckabee (maiden name Elder), both conservative Southern Democrats.
In 1973-1975, Huckabee studied theology and oratory at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, completing his bachelor's degree in Religion. He dropped out of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas after one year to work as a staffer for televangelist James Robison.
In 1980, Huckabee returned to Arkansas to serve as pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The young pastor moved to the Beech Street Baptist Church in Texarkana, Arkansas six years later and in 1989 won the presidency of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
Huckabee was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas at the age of 41 in 1996, following the resignation of Jim Guy Tucker, and served for two full terms.
In 2007, Huckabee announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for president.
The social conservative was a favourite candidate of the religious right. Despite several victories in the south, Senator John McCain won the Republican nomination over Huckabee.
The former governor took up broadcasting in September 2008, when he became the host of his own talk show on the FOX News Channel and The Mike Huckabee Show, a radio program produced by ABC, four years later.
In his first speech as a presidential candidate on Tuesday, Huckabee harshly criticized the policy of President Barack Obama's administration and vowed to fight "jihadism" as represented by Iran.
Huckabee addressed the main issues in the United States, including health care, illegal migration, tax policy, governance and education. As president, he pledged to reverse the healthcare reform program colloquially referred to as Obamacare.
Huckabee also slammed US authorities over immigration, with millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally. Obama is proposing to deal with the issue by granting a special amnesty, which Republican Huckabee categorically opposes.
On foreign policy, the incumbent US president took most of the flak for nuclear talks with Iran. At the same time, Huckabee upheld a course prioritizing relations with Israel.
In his remarks, the presidential hopeful made almost no reference to Russia, only dropping a slight hint in discussing the need for the US to become an energy exporter.
Americans will not be "impoverished by paying for [energy resources] when produced by a Saudi Sheik or a Russian robber-baron," Huckabee said.
The latest Republican presidential candidate married Janet McCain Huckabee in 1974 and has three children.
