Offering a taste of the intra-party tension that could follow Election Day, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee issued a warning to the Republicans who never came around to back Donald Trump.
“I’m going to tell you something. I’m going to remember them,” Huckabee said Tuesday morning during an appearance on Fox News. “And I hope every other Republican remembers them. Don’t ever ask me for your vote again because you’re done.”
While polls show GOP voters overwhelmingly support Trump, many Republican elites have been reluctant to back the real estate mogul.
Some, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, pledged to vote for Trump, even while disavowing some of the GOP nominee’s most controversial comments and positions. Sen. Ted Cruz initially declined to endorse Trump, with whom he engaged in a bitter campaign during the Republican primaries. But Cruz ultimately came home, citing his promise to back the party’s nominee.
Huckabee has stood in stark contrast to that group of Republicans, serving as one of Trump’s most faithful surrogates since ending his own White House bid in February. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has also served as a senior adviser on the Trump campaign.
The former two-term Arkansas governor, who also ran for president in 2008, said Tuesday on Fox that “some of the even most reluctant Republicans are coming around” to Trump. He suggested there is a legion of secret Trump voters — a popular theory among many Republicans — who avoid public expressions of support for the GOP nominee out of fear of being labeled racist.
Huckabee also offered some anecdotal data that was unfavorable to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I’m telling you, wherever I go, I don’t meet people who are for Hillary,” he said.