Huckabee 'open' to 2016 race if major financial support found

NEW YORK, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says he's "open" to another run for the White House in 2016 if he gets the necessary financial backing.

"I'm keeping the door open," the Christian conservative and former Arkansas governor said in an interview with the New York Times published Friday.

He said several factors will weigh heavily in his decision whether to enter the GOP horse race again. One is the ability to know any second try will be well-funded.

"If I talk to people and they say, 'If you run, we're in and we're in a big way,' that's going be helpful," said Huckabee. "If I don't hear that, you know what? This will be a real easy decision for me to make because I've jumped in a pool without water before and it's a hard hit at the bottom."

Huckabee ran so short of money at times during the 2008 primary season he had to suspend the campaign and go on the speaking circuit to raise cash. Now, he's financially secure, with a show on Fox News and income from paid speeches.

He's also looking at the possibility of connecting with a super PAC. Often funded solely by a single wealthy individual, they allow a candidate to run without a large network of donors.

Huckabee is buoyed somewhat by his belief that his campaign's focus on the working class was correct, although it was rejected at the time by other candidates.

"A lot of things I said that I was sneered at about turned out to be prophetic," he said. "A year later I looked like a genius but nobody ever said, 'Huckabee was right'."