1998: Huckabee wins 48% of votes by African Americans in Arkansas gubernatorial race

Gov. Mike Huckabee campaigns at a Baptist church in S.C. in 2015

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is currently #1 in the field of potential contenders for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Florida. A Saint Leo University poll had him at 31.5 percent.

If Huckabee is nominated, he would likely continue to actively seek the support of African American voters like he has done since his political career in Arkansas. Back in 1998, Huckabee won 48 percent of the votes cast by African Americans in his Arkansas gubernatorial general election race against Democrat Bill Bristow.  

Huckabee also made numerous efforts to reach out to African American voters during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015, especially in South Carolina.

The last Florida GOP gubernatorial nominee who received a significant portion of votes from black citizens was Charlie Crist. Crist won 20 percent of the general election votes by African Americans when he ran for the governorship as a Republican back in 2006.

Huckabee certainly wouldn’t have an easy path with black voters in Florida. He’s been over-the-top in many of his political comments about U.S. President Barack Obama. A Washington Post article from 2015 also reported that:  “GOP candidates, including Huckabee, were criticized as having a slow and timid response to calls to remove the Confederate flag following the Charleston, S.C., church massacre in June — although most ultimately supported Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s successful push to do so.”

But Huckabee could benefit from the weakness of the Florida Democratic Party just like Crist did ten years ago. The state party’s failure to find strong leadership has helped the GOP keep a tight hold the Governor’s Mansion and both chambers of the legislature for nearly two decades. A recent news analysis by the Tampa Bay Times concluded that the Democrats could have won the Florida Senate in 2016 following redistricting, but missed that opportunity because “they didn’t field enough candidates.”

Florida Democratic officials also did a terrible job of supporting 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, which helped now-President-elect Donald Trump win the state. 

The pathetic state of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus (FLBC) in 2015 and 2016 was a major problem, too. Its members were more concerned about pursing big donors than doing more important things like following through on all their talk about defending FAMU.

Two of FLBC’s highest-profile members, Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner and FLBC Chair Ed Narain appeared to have lost touch with the South Florida Democratic voters who had supported them. Joyner endorsed Narain for the District 19 Senate seat that she was termed out from seeking again. But most Democratic voters turned a cold shoulder the endorsement and backed Daryl Rouson for the nomination.

The Florida Democratic Party has yet to show that has even started to do the hard work needed to fix itself. That could give more voters from the Democratic base a reason to consider a GOP gubernatorial candidate like many did in 2006.