DES MOINES - God-fearing ordained Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee pulled off a stunning upset in the first lap of the 2008 White House race Thursday to come from nowhere to win the Iowa caucuses.
With little money in his campaign coffers and no foreign policy experience, Huckabee relied on his famous wit and his Christian faith to win over the notoriously independent-minded Iowans.
In just weeks, the 52-year-old former Arkansas governor went from being a rank outsider with just four percent support to securing the all-important first nod for the Republican ticket in November's presidential polls.
His main rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney threw millions of dollars of his own money into the Iowa race in a bid to rein in Huckabee's surge. But he had to settle for second place.
"Congratulations to Mike and we'll go on to New Hampshire," Romney said on Fox News.
Huckabee, who has built his campaign on the slogan "Faith. Family. Freedom," powered to victory partly by exploiting discontent among Christian conservatives at the splintered Republican field.
His brand of populist politics -- vehemently opposing abortion, any tightening of gun control laws and urging tougher immigration rules -- hit home here.
The wise-cracking, guitar-playing Huckabee, who says he believes every word written in the Bible, also relied on his folksy charm in the battle to win over caucuses goers.
His solution to stemming illegal immigration for instance would rely on sending in his star supporter, the karate-kicking television actor Chuck Norris, he quipped.
Once best known for being born in the same town -- Hope, Arkansas -- as former president Bill Clinton, Huckabee elbowed out his other more experienced Republican rivals in Iowa by wooing social conservatives and evangelical Christians.
But some of his views plunged him into hot water. He became embroiled in a row over comments he made in 1992 suggesting AIDS patients should be quarantined, later telling Fox News he would probably "say things a little differently" now.
And Huckabee was also forced to apologize to Romney for an implied attack on the latter's Mormon faith when he was quoted in the New York Times magazine saying "don't Mormons ... believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"
Born into a modest American family, Huckabee married his high-school sweetheart Janet and has three grown-up children.
An ordained Baptist preacher, he spent much of his adult life as a pastor, and in 1989 he was elected as the youngest president ever of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. His first foray into politics came in 1992 when he unsuccessfully stood for the US Senate.
In 1993 he became vice-governor of Arkansas, and then governor from 1996-2007, during which time he brought in huge income tax cuts, while hiking taxes on fuel and cigarettes.
Despite his conservatism, Huckabee is an outspoken advocate of spending government funds on education and health care for poor children.
A bass guitarist, who plays with his band Capitol Offense, he often turned up at his Iowa rallies guitar in hand, playing to a crowd which attracted many low-income families.
Once heavily overweight, Huckabee shed 110 pounds (50 kilograms) after being diagnosed with diabetes in 2003 and parlayed that into a successful book "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork."
Critics have attacked his record on crime, saying he pardoned or commuted the sentences of three times more prisoners than his previous three predecessors.
And despite his Iowa triumph, Huckabee still remains a longshot for the Republican nomination with all eyes now be on the more liberal New Hampshire, which holds the first primary vote on Tuesday, and where his Christian-based politics may find less resonance.
However, the one-time rank outsider is now increasingly being mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick.
aje-jkb/ch

01/04/2008 02:18 GMT