Upcoming Trump Arkansas Campaign Stop Fuels Speculation of Huckabee Endorsement

By Josh FeldmanJan 30th, 2016, 4:50 pm
 

According to multiple reports this week, Donald Trump will be holding a campaign rally in Arkansas next week, between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Now, normally, an event like this would be fairly standard, but it’s actually fueling speculation of a surprise endorsement.

Who? Well…

That’s right, Mike Huckabee.

Allahpundit over at HotAir laid out a pretty compelling theory yesterday:

[W]hat if Huckabee made an agreement with Trump recently to support him after Iowa if his own campaign ends up never taking off? We’ve all been interpreting Huck’s endless shots at Cruz as a product of bitterness, but maybe they’re more strategic than that. Until recently I assumed that Huckabee would endorse Rubio once he dropped out, partly as thanks for Rubio endorsing Huckabee in 2008 and partly because Rubio has traditionally been seen as the biggest threat to Cruz. Lately, though, respect for Trump’s chances at winning the nomination has risen; he leads Rubio in prediction markets, meaning that if you were all about stopping Cruz, Trump’s arguably your best bet at this point.

Huckabee has been taking plenty of shots at Cruz over his faith, and while he has occasionally criticized Trump here and there, he’s mostly defended Trump and even (surprisingly, considering his own record of social conservatism) took Trump’s side in his fight with Cruz over New York values.

[image via screengrab]

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac