Mike Huckabee says despite their runaway polling numbers in the battleground primary states, both Donald Trump and Ben Carson could easily end up losing — to him.
The former Arkansas governor acknowledges being way behind the billionaire developer and retired pediatric neurosurgeon in the race all three are engaged in for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
For example, in a new
Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll of likely GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, Huckabee registers only 3 percent of the vote as compared to Carson's 28 percent and Trump's 19 percent.
But those numbers are deceiving — and a big upset is very possible, he believes.
"Historically, Iowa is a state where the voters break late for who they end up voting for and there typically is at this point a candidate that is riding high in the polls, but it doesn't last," Huckabee said on
Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"Eight years ago, it was [former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani and he was riding high at this point. Never even made it to the starting blocks."
"At this point, four years ago, it was Herman Cain and he didn't make it to the starting blocks. Good candidate, but, this is not that unusual."
Huckabee said predictions for Trump and Carson were quite different at the beginning of the summer.
"If we roll back the whole calendar … were there any pundits in America that predicted that Donald Trump and Ben Carson would be number one and number two, rolling away with big leads at this point of the campaign?" Huckabee asked.
"And the answer is, no one saw it. Everyone said, they won't last. Well, here they are."
"Now my point is, if they were as wrong about Ben Carson and Donald Trump three months ago, they might be as wrong about where this race is right now and where it's still headed."
Huckabee added: "I think [the nominee] will be me, but we'll find that out."
Huckabee is the author of
"God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy," published by St. Martin's Press.
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