Mike Huckabee

Republican presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee drops out of the Republican presidential race at a primary watch party, Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Irving, Texas, after John McCain clinched the nomination with a win in the Texas primary. "We kept the faith," he told his end-of-the-road rally. In the process, the former Baptist minister helped turn a slew of well-funded sure things into also-rans.

New Hope

Like Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee was born in the small Arkansas town of Hope. Clinton became the youngest governor of the state, and then won a long-shot campaign for president. Huckabee also became governor of Arkansas (one of the youngest), and now hopes to be the second Hope native in the White House. "All I ask," he says on the stump about his birthplace, "give us one more chance."

The Thin Man

Mike Huckabee, 52, former governor, preacher, former Christian broadcaster, rock guitarist, might be best known for having shed 110 pounds. On the left is how he appeared at the National Governors Association annual winter meeting in Washington D.C. in February, 2003. On the right, he is at the same meeting in February, 2005. Now a health crusader, he wrote a book titled "Quit Digging Your Grave With A Knife And Fork"

"Chuck Norris Approved"

He is becoming known as well for an anarchic sense of humor. In his first commercial of the 2008 campaign, he explains his "plan for securing the border. Two words: Chuck Norris." The well-known martial artist and actor then praises Huckabee as a "principled, authentic conservative" - pro-gun, anti-IRS - while Huckabee praises his endorser as well: "There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard, only another fist."

Bible reader

Michael Dale Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955, the son of a firefighter and a gas company clerk. He has said that he is the first male in his family ever to have graduated even from high school. He graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and then attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas.

Baptist Preacher

For 12 years, Huckabee served as a minister in churches in Arkansas. "I first became politically active because of abortion," he says on his campaign Web site, "when I helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it legally can to protect life." The first election he won was as Arkansas lieutenant governor in 1993.

"Whitewater" Was Good To Him

Kenneth Starr, the special counsel to the Whitewater investigation, appeared at a press conference in 1996, after Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of fraud. Tucker (Clinton's successor as governor) eventually resigned his office, and Huckabee became governor. Two years laters, he was elected to a full four-year term.

Married At 18

In 1974, after his freshman year of college, Huckabee married his high school sweetheart, Janet McCain. She currently works for the American Red Cross in Arkansas, helping to coordinate disaster preparedness. The Huckabees have three grown children.

Married At 49 (To Same Wife)

In 2005, Mike and Janet Huckabee participated in a ceremony called a "covenant marriage," an option offered to couples, which as governor he signed into law, that makes it legally more difficult to split up. The governor invited several hundred couples to be involved in the ceremony.

Opponent of Abortion, Civil Unions

Protesters gathered outside the arena in Little Rock where the covenant marriage ceremony was being held. Huckabee opposes civil unions, and supports amending the United States Constitution so that it bans abortion and bans same-sex marriages. He also has said "I do not necessarily buy into" the theory of evolution.

Governor

In 2002, as part of a campaign marathon of 15 states in five days, President George W. Bush visited the Arkansas Regional Airport to help re-elect (the pre-diet) Huckabee. In his decade as governor, he focused on improving education and health, especially children's. He also passed a law that would allow children of illegal immigrants to attend college, for which he has been attacked.

Presidential Candidate

Huckabee announced for president on "Meet The Press" in January, 2007. Asked about previous comments that he would "take this nation back for Christ," he said " I don't want to make people think that I'm going to replace the Capitol dome with a steeple...[P]eople of faith do need to exercise their sense of responsibility toward education, toward health, toward the environment."

Guitar-Playing Republican Dude

When Huckabee joined nine other candidates at the Republican Party of Iowa's Abraham Lincoln Unity Dinner in April, 2007, he had a singular way of attracting attention: He got up and played bass with his band, Capitol Offense.

Elvis, Arkansas, Musical Instrument...Hmm

Huckabee, second from left, invited an Elvis impersonator to join his band, Capital Offense, on the stage at a campaign event in Ames, Iowa, on Aug 11, 2007 - thus showing one more thing he has in common with his fellow baptist, instrument-playing Hope-born politician.