Kim Davis fan Mike Huckabee suspends Presidential bid after Iowa defeat
Mike Huckabee has officially suspended his Presidential campaign – after failing to win a single delegate in this week’s Iowa caucuses.
The former Fox News pundit has spent the past year making vaguely homophobic comments to further his Republican Presidential bid – rallying behind Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, comparing anti-LGBT activists to Martin Luther King, labelling gay parents ‘destructive’, and ‘joking’ he wishes he were transgender to spy on teenage girls in the shower.
Despite all of his hard work, it didn’t pay off as the first voters caucused in Iowa this week, with ‘religious right’ groups like the anti-gay National Organisation for Marriage throwing their weight behind Ted Cruz.
After failing to make an impact in Iowa, Huckabee officially suspended his campaign today.
He said: “I am officially suspending my campaign. Thank you for all your loyal support.”
He joked he was suspending his campaign due to illness, adding: “Voters are sick of me.”
The candidate previously ranted about not getting endorsed by leading religious anti-gay groups, despite months making ill-informed homophobic comments.
He complained: “A lot of them, quite frankly, I think they’re scared to death that if a guy like me got elected, I would actually do what I said I would do… if we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight?”
Despite the loss of Huckabee, there’s not much good news for LGBT people in the Republican results.
Ted Cruz won the state with 28 percent – compared to Donald Trump on 24 percent and Marco Rubio on 23 percent.
All three front-runners are ardently opposed to LGBT equality.
Despite attending gay weddings himself, Trump recently ditched his support for same sex marriage in a bid to shore up support – adding he would “consider” a push to overturn the Supreme Court marriage ruling.
Meanwhile, Ted Cruz has openly pledged to scrap equal marriage, and introducing laws that would permit anti-LGBT discrimination on the grounds of ‘religious freedom’.
Cruz has also come under fire for his links to extremist pastors – and is still yet to condemn ‘death to gays’ pastor Kevin Swanson, with whom he has appeared at events.
