Mike Huckabee: Anybody who thinks I want to be the ‘evangelical candidate’ didn’t hear my speech

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday he’s the same person he was in 2008, when he rode strong support among social conservatives to a win in Iowa and seven other states, but that anyone who thinks he’s running to be the “evangelical candidate” wasn’t watching his Tuesday speech announcing a 2016 presidential run.

“I’m the same guy — I believe the same things” as in 2008, Mr. Huckabee said on “Fox and Friends.” “I’m a Christian who — I don’t have the option of rewriting the Bible to fit the culture. I have to be who I am.”

“But if anybody thinks that I’m running because I want to be the evangelical candidate must not have heard my speech yesterday,” he said. “This is about securing America, making this country safe, and it’s about giving economic opportunity to the people who right now don’t have it in this country.”

“The economy is booming for people at the top — it is not booming for the bottom 90 percent of the workforce in America,” Mr. Huckabee continued. “The bottom 90 percent, which is most of America, has had stagnant wages for 40 years.”