IOWA CAUCUSES

Huckabee hits 99th county in Iowa

Kathy A. Bolten
kbolten@dmreg.com
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visits Sigourney High School Thursday Jan. 7, 2016. Huckabee celebrated visiting all 99 counties in Iowa.

Sigourney, Ia. — Ninety-nine students holding signs with the names of Iowa’s 99 counties welcomed Mike Huckabee to their school Thursday morning, as the Republican presidential candidate marked the completion of a campaign milestone — stumping in all of the state’s counties.

“Today is a big day for me in that this event marks the completion of making all 99 counties and doing town halls,” Huckabee told the 300 students and community members gathered at Signourney Junior-Senior High School’s gymnasium. “We are very excited to save the best for the last — Keokuk County.”

Thursday marked the 51st day Huckabee has campaigned in Iowa since May, when he announced his bid for president. The candidate on Jan. 2 began a rigorous campaign schedule that will include 150 Iowa events by the Feb. 1 caucuses. On Thursday, he was scheduled to cap six days and 25 campaign events with a rally with volunteers at his headquarters in Urbandale.

Huckabee, in December, had an average of 3 percent of support among Iowa Republicans, according to to Real Clear Politics’s polling averages. Several national polls, though, show Huckabee getting high favorability ratings.

Huckabee, who won the 2008 caucuses, remains optimistic that Iowans will again rally behind him.

“We think that hard work wins the caucus,” he said Thursday, during a stop in Oskaloosa where he kicked off his Iowa campaign in May. When Iowans, who have been bombarded with television, radio and Internet ads and countless phone calls, remember on caucus night “the one guy that came to my town and talked to me and listened to me was Mike Huckabee, I believe that will count.”

Earlier this week Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who took the lead among Republican presidential candidates in an Iowa Poll last month, asked Iowa conservatives not to battle each other at the caucuses, warning it could result in a Republican loss in November. He also said a fight among Iowa conservatives could open the door for a moderate GOP candidate.

Some political pundits have interpreted Cruz’s comments as a suggestion for conservatives to back him instead of candidates like Huckabee.

Asked Thursday about Cruz’s comments, Huckabee laughed, saying he agreed that Iowans should coalesce around one candidate: Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee, on a serious note, added: “Iowa voters are offended that one candidate should consider himself the supreme candidate.. That’s an arrogance we see in Obama; it’s not an arrogance we want to see in Republicans.”

Other issues Huckabee talked about Thursday:

Students hold 99 signs for Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee during his visit Sigourney High School Thursday Jan 7, 2015. Huckabee celebrated visiting all 99 counties in Iowa.

On Obama’s executive orders: “The purpose of an executive order is to do something within the executive branch of government that you have the power to do. … Barack Obama as president, doesn’t think he has any limitations. He thinks he has all three branches of government in himself and if he’s not a competent enough president to convince Congress to go along with his plans, he just shuts them out and does it anyway. You cannot legislate at the executive level.”

On mental health care: Too many people aren’t getting the help they need, Huckabee said. “There needs to be a retooling of the system and a change in philosophy where we don’t believe that everyone who has a severe mental health issue should be mainstreamed and able to be about the community.”

On a free college education: “Making college free could be a bad idea unless there’s something a person is doing to get the education. … If you want free college, you will commit to military service or you will commit to some type of national service. There will be a trade — you will serve your country and your country, in turn, will help you with your education.”

At the events

SETTINGS: Gymnasium of Signourney Junior-Senior High School in Sigourney and a back room at Smokey Row in Oskaloosa.

REACTION: Huckabee got chuckles when he held up a bumper sticker and told people in Oskaloosa that their vehicles would get better gas mileage if they put the sticker on them

CROWD: About 300 people in Sigourney and 30 at Oskaloosa. .

WHAT’S NEXT: This was the final day of a six-day, 25-stop campaign trip through Iowa. Huckabee returns to the state next week. For a complete schedule go to DesMoinesRegister.com/candidatetracker.

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