Huckabee: Evangelicals ‘scared to death’ of me

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) said Wednesday that evangelical leaders are “scared to death” he would ultimately achieve their goals and render them useless.

“A lot of them, quite frankly, are scared to death that if a guy like me got elected I would do what I actually said I’m going to do,” he said on Fox News Radio’s “Todd Starnes Podcast.”

{mosads}“A lot of these organizations have the ability to do urgent fundraising,” Huckabee continued, as first reported by BuzzFeed.

“If we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight?” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate asked.

“To many of them, it could be a real detriment to their organization’s abilities to gin up their supporters and raise their contributions.”

Huckabee argued that religious faith organizations are misleading donors about their spiritual goals.

“It seems like the criteria I’ve been told for selecting candidates is very secular,” he said. “It’s about, well, this person is polling well or this person has the cash.”

“I just feel like there comes a point in our lives where we either believe in a great God who does great things and uses the weak sometimes to get it done,” the former Baptist minister continued.

“Or else we don’t believe that, and we get human might, and all the human resources, and we live and die by the human sword.”

Huckabee additionally admitted disappointment with the ulterior motives of some major evangelical players.

“It is not always about the principles and the convictions,” he said. “I know that sounds cynical, but it is what it is. I can’t just abandon issues that to me are moral issues. That’s the price you pay.”

Huckabee’s remarks come as his second Oval Office bid struggles for traction with voters nationwide.

He is now hoping that Iowa’s religious voters will boost him to a strong performance in its GOP presidential caucuses on Feb. 1.

Huckabee is about 29 points behind the front-runner in the Hawkeye State, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) remains the leader in Iowa with 31.8 percent per the same index of polls there.