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As Huckabee Plans Presidential Run, He’s Already Alienated Half The Country

Leslie Rutledge, Republican candidate for Arkansas attorney general, left, speaks with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Little Rock, Ark. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/DANNY JOHNSTON
Leslie Rutledge, Republican candidate for Arkansas attorney general, left, speaks with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Little Rock, Ark. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/DANNY JOHNSTON

Former Arkansas Governor and Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee (R) is planning to make an announcement Friday evening about his 2016 presidential campaign plans. Huckabee told reporters Friday that he was the best Republican contender to challenge “the Clinton political machine” — but he’ll have a hard time winning over female voters, a crucial group for any Republican presidential nominee.

Here are some of Huckabee’s most dated and outlandish ideas about women:

Female candidates are “special treasures.” In 2014, Huckabee argued that if Clinton or any other women ran for president in 2016, she would need to be treated as a “special treasure” and with a “sense of pedestal.”

“I’ve twice run against women opponents, and it’s a very different kind of approach. For those of us who have some chivalry left, there’s a level of respect. … You treat some things as a special treasure; you treat other things as common.” In the interview, he added that he treats his wife differently than he treats his “chums” and “pals.”

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Democrats are like “Uncle Sugar,” who think women need birth control because they can’t “control their libido.” Huckabee also said earlier in 2014 at the Republican National Convention that Democrats are sending a message to women that “they cannot control their libido” by offering no-copay contraception through the Affordable Care Act. During the speech, he also likened Obamacare’s expanded contraception coverage to a sugar daddy. New York women are “trashy” because they swear in the office. Earlier this year, Huckabee said in a radio interview that he experienced culture shock when he heard profanity in the workplace at Fox News in New York City. “This would be considered totally inappropriate to say these things in front of a woman,” he said. “For a woman to say them in a professional setting, that’s just trashy.”Women can’t multitask when they’re on their period. Huckabee has also speculated that women have trouble multitasking during their periods and specifically endorsed the belief that “wives graciously submit to their husband’s sacrificial leadership.” He passionately supported former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) after the failed Senate candidate claimed victims of “legitimate rape” can’t get pregnant.The Newtown school massacre was caused by “tax-funded abortion pills.” After Adam Lanza opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and six staffers, Huckabee blamed the attack on Godless culture, rather than a proliferation of guns. Huckabee told Fox News that the shooting was not surprising given that society had “systematically removed God from our schools” and forced Christian businesses to “surrender their values under the edict of government orders to provide tax-funded abortion pills.”

The GOP has been trying to broaden its traditionally white, male base since the 2012 election, holding training sessions and advising candidates to simply avoid talking about rape. But so far, the efforts have backfired — likely due to offensive comments from Republicans like Huckabee — and the party has actually been losing women’s support.