DES MOINES — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the two most recent GOP caucus winners, will be attending Donald Trump’s Thursday night event to rival the Republican presidential debate.
After the #GOPDebate I’ll join @realDonaldTrump in Des Moines to support our vets who’ve been abandoned by @BarackObama. Hope you join us!
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 28, 2016
Huckabee tweeted that he will participate in an earlier debate of lower polling candidates and then head off to nearby Drake University, where Trump is holding his event after bolting from the debate after a war of words with Fox News and Megyn Kelly, who is set to co-moderate the event.
Huckabee’s announcement is part of a last ditch effort for the 2008 Iowa victor to boost his standing with caucus-goers before Monday and stick it to Sen. Ted Cruz, who he has been harshly attacking on the campaign trail. By early Thursday afternoon, Santorum representatives confirmed to the Washington Examiner, as well as multiple media outlets, that he, too, would attend the event. Santorum won the caucus in 2012.
Trump continues to be locked in a tight battle with Cruz for the top spot in Iowa, with Trump currently leading the Texas senator by single digits in the latest RealClearPolitics average. The businessman and reality television star is hoping to stave off Cruz’s challenge by eating into his support among very conservative voters and evangelicals (who were the key to the sucess of Huckabee and Santorum).
More than anything, Huckabee and Santorum’s appearance at the event helps provide cover from criticism being launched at Trump by Cruz for ducking the debate and plays into Trump’s image as a candidate who doesn’t play by the normal rules of politics.
Though Huckabee, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, insisted his appearance did not constitute an endorsement. “It’s to honor the troops,” he said. “It’s not an endorsement of Donald Trump’s candidacy. I’m still running for president. We’ve got the caucuses Monday night. But I’m delighted to join with Donald Trump in an effort to salute veterans and, you know what, I didn’t have anything going on at 8:00 tonight,” joking about his exclusion from the main stage debate.
Trump has risen to first place in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, while Huckabee is 10th and Santorum is 11th.
This story was updated at 2:30 p.m.
