Governor Michael Dale Huckabee in the Southern Quote

He was born August 24, 1955 in Hope, Arkansas to conservative Southern Democratic parents. He cites his working-class upbringing as the reason for his own populist conservative political views.

He began playing guitar at age 11, preached his first sermon as a teenager and got his first job at a radio station when he was 14. In what would become an omen of sorts, his chapter of the American-Legion-sponsored Boys State program elected him Governor of Arkansas in 1972. After marrying his wife, Janet, in 1974, Mike graduated magna cum laude from Ouachita Baptist University, completing his bachelor’s degree in religion in 2 ½ years.

Although attending the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth for one year, Mike dropped out of school to take a job in Christian broadcasting. He subsequently served as pastor of Baptist churches in Pine Bluff and Texarkana before deciding that his calling was in the political field.

After losing his first political race, Michael Dale Huckabee was elected Arkansas lieutenant governor, only the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that capacity in Arkansas. Huckabee was sworn in as governor in 1996 when incumbent Democratic governor Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of fraud in the Whitewater scandal. Huckabee was then elected to two consecutive four-year terms, serving from 1996-2007.

The former governor threw his hat in the ring in the 2008 presidential election campaign, staying in the race until he realized that John McCain was going to win the Republican nomination. Today, this ordained Southern Baptist minister is the author of several best- selling books, a musician and a public speaker. He currently hosts the Fox News Channel talk show “Huckabee,” and since April 2012 has been the host of “The Mike Huckabee Show,” a radio show produced by ABC.

In today’s Southern quote we recognize Governor Michael Dale Huckabee, a man of conviction who urges us to, “Pray a little more, work a little harder, save, wait, be patient and most of all, live within our means. That’s the American way.”