Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee met with about 40 conservative scholars in California Thursday in preparation for a potential presidential run in 2016. The discussion and Q&A session occurred at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and included in attendance George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state. Huckabee later joined Lanhee Chen, a Hoover research fellow and the top policy adviser to Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, in a private, hour-long conversation.
Bob Wickers, the veteran Republican pollster and media consultant who advised Huckabee in his 2008 White House campaign, was also at the meeting.
Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for Huckabee, characterized the Hoover confab as a “long, very constructive, and very productive meeting.”
Huckabee "had a frank and in-depth discussion on domestic and foreign policy" with the many policy experts, says Gidley.
Huckabee spoke a great deal his economic record as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, including his tax cuts that he often touts as the “first broad-based tax cut” in state history. He also discussed his push to establish a maximum wage, a policy proposal Huckabee has spoken about during his recent trips to Iowa.
The visit to Hoover suggests the former Arkansas governor is moving closer to running for president next year. Huckabee, a source says, will make a decision about his presidential plans this spring.
Huckabee ran for the GOP nomination in 2008 and won the Iowa caucuses, though he failed to capture enough delegates to contend against eventual nominee John McCain.