Mike Huckabee Loses Key Staffer to This Candidate
It’s not uncommon for veteran presidential candidates to have a lot of new faces on their team when they decided to run for a second (or, in some cases, third) time.
For much of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s campaign staff, that is true. But one of the mainstays of his runner-up campaign in 2008 who “Stuck with Huck” for his 2016 run was Communications Director Alice Stewart.
She left the campaign just before Christmas, however, over salary cuts and disagreements over the direction of the campaign. A short time later, the campaign announced it was moving all of its operations out of Arkansas in a last-ditch “Iowa or Bust” effort to place in the top three in the state.
Stewart had become an occasional panelist on Sunday talk shows, appearing as recently as this past weekend. Monday, however, it was announced she was joining U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’ campaign as a “senior adviser.”
Huckabee continues to struggle in Iowa, which he won in 2008, trailing Cruz and all of the other top-tier candidates. His current Real Clear Politics polling average in Iowa is just 2.6 percent, which ties him with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul for sixth place.
The Cruz campaign has not officially announced Stewart’s addition to its team, but several national figures committed to the senator’s campaign have applauded the move.