By Robert Costa
Huckabee, 59, who is considering a 2016 bid for the Republican nomination, will attend several private sessions at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a conservative research center on campus.
J. Hogan Gidley, Huckabee’s senior communications adviser, confirmed the meetings.
Lanhee Chen, a Hoover fellow and Mitt Romney’s policy director during the 2012 campaign, will take part in the discussions, along with several of the think tank’s resident scholars. Bob Wickers, Huckabee’s political strategist, will also be there.
Huckabee is not the only potential GOP contender who is seeking out conservative thinkers in preparation for a presidential campaign. Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) visited Hoover in 2013 and Romney lectured at Stanford in January while he was mulling a run.
For much of this year, Huckabee has been focused on social issues and promoting his latest book, “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy,” his manifesto on what he believes is a culture adrift.
But with his trip to Palo Alto, Calif., Thursday, Huckabee is signaling that he wants to be more than a one-issue candidate, should he formally enter the presidential contest.
Broadening his pitch may be necessary for Huckabee, who has spent recent years as a television personality on Fox News. With Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) announcing his campaign Monday, the competition for the GOP’s right flank, especially evangelicals, will be intense.
Huckabee, a longtime Baptist pastor, has been warmly embraced by top religious conservatives for decades. His rapport with supply-side conservatives hasn't been quite as strong, with many influential GOP figures finding his record on taxes and spending to be lacking.
“He’s a big-government Republican who dramatically increased spending and increased the state sales tax” in Arkansas, said David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, in an interview earlier this year. “Republican donors are going to look at that record and say, ‘We care a great deal about economic issues, and we need a stronger candidate.’ ”
Huckabee’s response to such criticism has usually been to reference how he turned a budget shortfall in Arkansas into a budget surplus, and to note that he had to work with a Democratic state legislature.
Getting some foreign-policy counsel is on Thursday’s docket as well, Gidley said.
Two former Republican secretaries of state, George Shultz and Condoleezza Rice, are based at Hoover, but it is unclear whether Huckabee will meet with them.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who struggled during his 2008 presidential campaign to win over economic and foreign-policy conservatives, is scheduled to study up Thursday on tax policy and international affairs in a series of meetings at Stanford University.
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| He's headed back to school -- and probably the trail. |
J. Hogan Gidley, Huckabee’s senior communications adviser, confirmed the meetings.
Lanhee Chen, a Hoover fellow and Mitt Romney’s policy director during the 2012 campaign, will take part in the discussions, along with several of the think tank’s resident scholars. Bob Wickers, Huckabee’s political strategist, will also be there.
Huckabee is not the only potential GOP contender who is seeking out conservative thinkers in preparation for a presidential campaign. Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) visited Hoover in 2013 and Romney lectured at Stanford in January while he was mulling a run.
For much of this year, Huckabee has been focused on social issues and promoting his latest book, “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy,” his manifesto on what he believes is a culture adrift.
But with his trip to Palo Alto, Calif., Thursday, Huckabee is signaling that he wants to be more than a one-issue candidate, should he formally enter the presidential contest.
Broadening his pitch may be necessary for Huckabee, who has spent recent years as a television personality on Fox News. With Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) announcing his campaign Monday, the competition for the GOP’s right flank, especially evangelicals, will be intense.
Huckabee, a longtime Baptist pastor, has been warmly embraced by top religious conservatives for decades. His rapport with supply-side conservatives hasn't been quite as strong, with many influential GOP figures finding his record on taxes and spending to be lacking.
“He’s a big-government Republican who dramatically increased spending and increased the state sales tax” in Arkansas, said David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, in an interview earlier this year. “Republican donors are going to look at that record and say, ‘We care a great deal about economic issues, and we need a stronger candidate.’ ”
Huckabee’s response to such criticism has usually been to reference how he turned a budget shortfall in Arkansas into a budget surplus, and to note that he had to work with a Democratic state legislature.
Getting some foreign-policy counsel is on Thursday’s docket as well, Gidley said.
Two former Republican secretaries of state, George Shultz and Condoleezza Rice, are based at Hoover, but it is unclear whether Huckabee will meet with them.
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