Huckabee exit shuffles deck for his backers in state

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio supporters in Arkansas are energized after their presidential contenders' showings Monday in the Iowa caucuses, and they hope to use that momentum to build more support.

But real estate mogul Donald Trump, who placed second in the caucuses, is still very much in the race. He is holding a rally today in Little Rock.

Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, placed first Monday, and Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, finished a strong third.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- who earned about 2 percent of the vote in Iowa -- dropped out of the presidential race Monday evening.

Huckabee, who declared his candidacy in May, had lined up endorsements from nearly all of Arkansas' constitutional officers and members of the Arkansas congressional delegation. Huckabee's exit now frees his supporters to back other candidates.

Jeremy Adler, a regional spokesman for Rubio, said Tuesday that Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford and Steve Womack are endorsing Rubio.

In an interview, Griffin said of Rubio: "He has a solid record as a conservative, I think by any standard. I think that his personal story is inspiring -- not just interesting -- but inspiring."

Griffin added, "I think he will increase, in a significant way, the size of our party. I think our appeal will be broadened. I think winning elections is about addition, not subtraction."

Huckabee's absence in the race makes the choice clear for most, said Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia.

"There's going to be two strong gravitational pulls going forward. One pull is going to be in the establishment direction. I think Rubio probably -- certainly -- enhanced his claim in that arena," he said. "The other gravitational pull is going to be ideological. I think Ted Cruz, based on his strong showing, is going to try to claim to be the voice behind orthodox conservatism."

Bass said he can't predict what will happen at today's Trump rally, set for 5 p.m. in Barton Coliseum in Little Rock.

"I think he wants to recapture that sense of inevitability that he was trying to foster before the votes started getting counted," he said. "The way he's done that in the past is through these spectacles."

Given Monday's finish in Iowa, will Trump still be able to fill the 10,195-seat coliseum in Little Rock?

"I just don't know," Bass said. "Midweek activities are harder to draw crowds to, but again, he's shown over the past year a capacity to draw crowds of a magnitude that are most unusual."

However Trump does tonight, Bass said he doubted that lawmakers would gravitate to Trump -- though Jeb Bush, John Kasich and other establishment candidates in the race could receive some support.

During the state Republican Party's committee meeting in December, Cruz won a presidential straw poll, receiving 44 percent of the 164 votes cast. Huckabee finished second in the poll, and Rubio and Trump tied for third place.

State Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, is co-chairman of Cruz's Arkansas leadership team. Reached during his drive home from Iowa, Ballinger said he knew of no one in the state Legislature backing Trump or candidate Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon.

He said Cruz's unflinching principals -- along with a strong organization -- netted him a win in Iowa and will help him win in Arkansas.

"[Cruz] has unyieldingly took a stand for the Constitution," Ballinger said. "As a country, we're kind of standing on a precipice -- a great gap. We're either going to continue down this path of a fundamentally transformed America ... or we're going to stop, turn around, and return to the constitutional republic that was given to us by our forefathers."

Arkansas Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, a Rubio backer, said she appreciates her candidate's ability to work with other lawmakers to get things done.

She highlighted Rubio's work to derail President Barack Obama's health care law.

"I think he understands governing because he did come from a state Legislature," she said. "He's also a community college kid. I don't think people understand what a humble background he comes from. He epitomizes the American dream."

Irvin and Ballinger said they're lining up endorsements for their candidates and are likely to make related announcements in the coming weeks.

Other public officials contacted say they're weighing their options.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson -- hired by then-President George W. Bush to lead the border and transportation security division of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 -- hasn't committed to vote for the former president's brother.

"No decision is expected until closer to the March 1 primary date," his spokesman J.R. Davis said in an email.

"With the end of Gov. Huckabee's campaign for president, Gov. Hutchinson will now take a look at the rest of the Republican field and endorse the candidate he believes best suited to lead our country and win in November."

Spokesmen for U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman and French Hill, U.S. Sen. John Boozman and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said they are evaluating the remaining candidates in the wake of Huckabee's departure.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 02/03/2016