Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) says it’s “nonsense” to claim his presidential campaign is on “life support.”
“People who say that sit in their little buildings in Washington,” Huckabee said on “Fox and Friends” Monday morning. “If they want to look at a campaign, come to Iowa.
“Every event we had last week had overflow crowds. We had people we couldn’t get in the room,” he added. “It incenses me when people who have no idea what a campaign is about pretend that ‘Huckabee’s campaign is on life support.’ ”
{mosads}Huckabee also argued that his current White House run is already faring better than his previous 2008 bid.
“I’m in a better place now than I was seven or eight years ago at the same time,” he said. “If people want to support the campaign, they can do it, but I get just so fed up and disgusted with pundits who don’t have clue what they’re talking about.”
Huckabee is fighting for attention in a more crowded presidential field than the one he previously encountered in 2008.
He currently ranks seventh out of 15 candidates, with 3.3 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
The Hill reported last week that Huckabee is attracting the fewest donations of any top 10 GOP presidential contender. He raised $1.24 million during the third quarter, the lowest of any candidate who has made a main stage Republican presidential debate this year thus far.
Huckabee additionally has $761,000 cash on hand, having spent roughly $100,000 more than he brought in.
The former Arkansas governor’s campaign said last week that he’s not concerned about his fundraising.
“We’ve done this before, can do it again and will have the resources we need to be successful in Iowa, the early southern states and beyond,” Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart told The Hill on Oct. 15.
Former Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) and Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) each suspended their 2016 campaigns earlier this summer amid meager fundraising hauls.
The larger GOP field has many candidates scrambling to get big name donors.