Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will quit the Republican presidential race if he can’t finish in the top three in Iowa.
Huckabee, who came from behind to win the Iowa caucuses in 2008 on the basis of strong support from evangelical Christians, has struggled to gain traction as those voters have gravitated toward Sen. Ted Cruz.
This prompted talk-show host Simon Conway on WHO-AM in Des Moines to ask on Wednesday, “Where do you have to come in Iowa to keep going?”
Huckabee responded, “Historically, we’ve always said there were three tickets out of Iowa, you have to come in number one, two, or three. I think in many ways that’s still the case.”
He continued, “It may be that if you’re a close second, a close third, that’s very good. If you’re a distant third, then maybe there’s not a way to go on and I think you take a good hard look at it after Iowa.”
Huckabee noted that he has staked his entire campaign on Iowa.
“Let’s be honest, I’m putting a lot of focus on Iowa,” he said. “I’m virtually living there in January. We’ve moved almost all of our staff — we’ll have over 30 full-time employees from our campaign that will be in Iowa.”
Huckabee is currently polling in a distant eighth in Iowa, at just 2.3 percent, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.
