Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leads the field of potential Republican presidential candidates in early-voting South Carolina,
The Hill reported Monday.
In a poll from Gravis Marketing, Huckabee, host of Fox News Channel's "Huckabee," received 18 percent, ahead of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who had 17 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was third with 14 percent, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who had 13 percent.
No other candidate reached double digits in the survey, The Hill reported. The Gravis Marketing poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Huckabee, who finished a strong second in South Carolina's 2008 primary, hasn't ruled out a 2016 presidential bid, and appeared to take a step closer with his planned headliner speaking engagement later this week at a
meeting of conservative pastors.
Some polls in Iowa, which he won in 2008, have found him to be a strong potential candidate there.
He
'll be in Little Rock, Ark., on Thursday and Friday for the Arkansas Renewal Project, part of evangelical organizer David Lane's American Renewal Project. Huckabee had the support of pastors in his 2008 fight against eventual winner Sen. John McCain.
Pastors from Iowa and South Carolina — two key political states early in the GOP primary season — will be meeting with Huckabee during the convention to urge him to run,
the Des Moines Register has reported.
"The purpose is to let Gov. Huckabee know there are people that would like to see him run for president again," Randy Davis, an evangelical Christian from Ottumwa, Iowa, who caucused for Newt Gingrich in 2012, told the Register.
"It seems like Gov. Huckabee has this uncanny ability to communicate the conservative message without being obstinate or polarizing," Davis said.
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