After finishing second in the South Carolina Republican primary, White House hopeful Mike Huckabee says the GOP nomination may not be decided until the Texas primary on March 4.
“By the time we get through February 5, there still will not be a decisive winner,” Huckabee told a gathering of Texas financial supporters in Navasota, Tex., on Sunday.
“I’m having to reach down deep and swallow my Arkansas pride, and it is taking everything in me to be able to say that, but folks, Texas may just have to save this Arkansas boy and put us over the top in March of this year.”
It is becoming increasingly clear that the GOP might not have a clear nominee after the super-primaries on Feb. 5, when 1,462 delegates are selected, the Houston Chronicle reports.
The same goes for the Democrats, according to former Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, a supporter of Hillary Clinton.
“It’s mathematically impossible,” he said. “Every candidate is going to have to contest Texas to squeeze every delegate out of it.”
Texas will choose 140 Republican delegates and 228 Democratic delegates.
Huckabee had been counting on a win in South Carolina on Saturday because of the state’s large population of social conservatives, the group that forms his base. But John McCain carried the state.
Social conservatives comprise an estimated 35 to 40 percent of the vote in the Texas GOP primary, according to the Chronicle.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry supports Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination. But Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute said Perry’s endorsement won’t help Giuliani because Huckabee will win the votes of social conservatives who disagree with Rudy’s support for abortion rights.
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