Huckabee dropped out of the White House race in March.

(CNN) — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Saturday he's not formally being vetted for the No. 2 spot on John McCain's presidential ticket.

The former Arkansas governor, whose insurgent candidacy won the hearts of social conservatives and shook up the Republican presidential primary race, told Radio Iowa the McCain campaign has yet to ask him for any information pertaining to its VP vetting process.

"If you're asking me have I had an official contact from the McCain campaign, no I have not. In all candor, no," he told the radio station. "No one has said, 'Hey, I need your tax form.'

But Huckabee noted he's already been through a vetting process of sorts: "I mean I think if a person has been a candidate, they have already been scrutinized — most everything they want or need to know is in some public record somewhere."

Still, the Arkansas Republican, who now serves as a political commentator for Fox News, said he doesn't expect to be offered the job.

"I'm not sitting around waiting on the phone to ring and right now — it would really mess up a lot of things I have going," he said.

Huckabee's shoestring presidential campaign came to an end in early March, after the former governor won eight states — mostly in the South — and amassed 278 delegates. His resounding win in Iowa is largely credited with derailing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential hopes.

Earlier this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — widely believed to be on McCain's VP shortlist — also said he had yet to hand over any information to the Arizona senator's campaign.

Mike Huckabee delivers a speech at Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo.

(CNN) – Former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee called Barack Obama's candidacy "a landmark achievement" Tuesday, and warned fellow Republicans not to demonize Obama.

"Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama," Huckabee told reporters in Tokyo, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

Huckabee praised the country for getting "to a point where we did not see his color but we truly saw his charisma, his message and what he brought to the campaign trail."

"When people are really hurting — and they are right now — they're not looking at a person's race," he added.

Huckabee said he hopes John McCain beats Obama, but that Republicans should focus on policy differences, not race.

Huckabee suggested questions about whether he might join McCain on the ticket were premature. "You can't accept an invitation to the prom until the football captain asks you. So I'm not going to go out and buy the outfit just yet," said Huckabee, according to AFP.

Robert Pittenger (right) is the Republican candidate for North Carolina Lieutenant Governor.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee did more than just give a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party convention. He also may have saved a life.

State GOP spokesman Brent Woodcox says the former Arkansas governor did the Heimlich maneuver on Robert Pittenger, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, at a lunch before Huckabee gave his speech Saturday.

Woodcox says Pittenger was walking by the front table of the lunch greeting people when he began to choke.

Woodcox says Huckabee jumped up to help Pittenger, who was able to walk away after the incident without medical assistance.

Phone messages left for Huckabee and Pittenger on Saturday were not immediately returned.

Mike Huckabee says even when he was John McCain's rival, he was always complimentary of him.

(CNN) — Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Sunday he’s interested in John McCain’s No. 2 spot.

“There's no one I would rather be on a ticket with than John McCain,” the former Arkansas governor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Let me point out that all during the campaign, when I was his rival, not a running mate, there was no one who was more complimentary of him publicly and privately,” he said.

Huckabee abandoned his presidential bid after McCain clinched the Republican nomination in early March.

When Huckabee announced his candidacy in January 2007, the former Baptist pastor was best known for his dramatic weight loss. The 52-year-old governor dropped more than 100 pounds after being diagnosed with diabetes in 2003.

Huckabee went on to finish first in the Iowa caucuses January 3, placing him among the top tier of Republican hopefuls.

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Watch Huckabee's joke at the NRA Convention Friday. (starting at 0:50).

(CNN) — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, known for his razor-sharp humor on the campaign trail, has again found it can be a double-edge sword, as he spent a third day explaining his admittedly “awkward” quip about Senator Barack Obama.

Huckabee talked to reporters Saturday after addressing graduates at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. Not surprisingly, the first question was about Friday’s joke at the NRA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, about the Democratic presidential front-runner. It came up again Sunday in his appearance on “Meet the Press”.

After a loud noise back stage during his speech Friday, Huckabee joked, “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him, and he dove for the floor.” The audience, who laughed as he started the line, turned quiet.

In his news conference Saturday, Huckabee acknowledged the line was a mistake. “It was a simple thing of an incredible distraction that happened somewhere backstage”, he said, “I made a rather awkward attempt at a joke, wasn’t all that great. I’ve apologized for it. I didn’t mean to offend anybody. I didn’t even remember having said it. I honestly had to go back and look at the tape.”

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Watch Huckabee's joke at the NRA Convention Friday. (starting at 0:50).

(CNN) – During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban, limits on gun sales, and a national law against carrying concealed weapons, with exceptions for retired police and military personnel. John McCain – whose legislative record was awarded a C+ rating by the NRA in 2004, but has received a perfect score – will address the group later Friday afternoon. His speech will include remarks "on the issue of unconditional negotiation with state sponsors of terror" that aides tell CNN’s Dana Bash are a direct response to Obama’s comments earlier Friday.

UPDATE, 8:28 PM: Huckabee released the following statement regarding his comments Friday, according to the New York Times website:
During my speech at the N.R.A., a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention.
 

Watch Huckabee's comments Thursday.

(CNN) – Former campaign underdog Mike Huckabee said Thursday that Democrat Hillary Clinton should ignore critics pressuring her to end her presidential run, telling CNN’s John Roberts that “she entered this thing to play to the finish line.”

“It’s easy to play horse race with this and say, ‘Gosh, she ought to drop out,’” he said on CNN’s American Morning. “She’s playing by the rules that the party set, just as I played by the rules that the Republican Party set.

“You know it’s frustrating to those of us who spend all of this time, effort and money — we get our supporters out there, we play by the rules that were handed and then somebody says, ‘It looks like the way this is gonna end is different than we want, so why don’t you go ahead and quit?’”

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Huckabee and McCain spoke with reporters Friday on the Straight Talk Express.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee, a former contender for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, said it would be “a little bit presumptuous to ever assume” that a congregant agrees with everything a pastor says.

“Influential? Sure. Necessarily transferable? Usually not,” Huckabee told a reporter while speaking with the press aboard Sen. John McCain’s campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express.

Huckabee, who was a Baptist pastor before eventually becoming Arkansas’s governor, is campaigning with McCain in Little Rock Friday. The former rivals maintained a cordial relationship before Huckabee ended his presidential bid leaving McCain as the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

Related: Huckabee and McCain do the rounds

McCain and Huckabee maintained a mostly-friendly relationship on the trail.

(CNN) – John McCain, on the last leg of a week-long tour of economically struggling areas throughout the country, is in Mike Huckabee’s home town of Little Rock, Arkansas, Friday campaigning alongside his former rival.

The former Baptist minister dropped out of the GOP presidential primary race on March 4, after McCain swept contests in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, giving the Arizona senator the delegates needed to claim the party's nomination in September.

The duo will visit a fundraiser, a barbecue joint, and a Baptist college event, and hold a media availability together.

Political pundits have long placed the former Arkansas governor on McCain’s likely vice presidential short list, and today’s stop is likely to fuel still more speculation.

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Huckabee’s new PAC is supporting conservative candidates.

(CNN) – In a widely-expected move, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee officially launched his new political action committee, HuckPAC, Tuesday at noon.

According to a statement released Tuesday, the new PAC will “raise funds for Republican candidates and continue promoting the principles and ideas of conservative, smaller and more responsible government.”

The former Arkansas governor, who recently signed with Hollywood talent agency CAA, is also launching a new Web site that will plug candidates he is backing, collect donations for those candidates, and “allow supporters to post ideas and continue to be a part of Huckabee's national network.”

Huckabee said earlier this month that he would consider another run for the presidency in 2012.

(CNN) – Former Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee has signed a contract with Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, daughter and senior advisor Sarah Huckabee tells CNN.

“Nothing has been decided,” the younger Huckabee says of future projects, “[it] probably won't be just one thing but maybe several different things. Just exploring options right now.”

Huckabee follows former rival Fred Thompson’s lead by inking a post-campaign deal with a talent agency. But unlike the former Tennessee senator, this is Huckabee’s first official foray into show business.

While running, his appearances on late-night shows like 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Colbert Report' garnered praise and Huckabee seemed armed with a new expression for every television appearance. As it became apparent he wouldn’t win the Republican nomination, reporters began asking Huckabee about a possible future in television.

In a letter to supporters Wednesday, Huckabee announced that on Thursday he will host what is being billed as “a landmark teleconference call” that will lay out his plans for the future and discuss the state of the conservative movement.

Mike Huckabee tells supporters in a letter they haven't heard the last of him.

(CNN) – In a letter to supporters Friday, Mike Huckabee said that despite no longer being in the race, he doesn’t plan on forfeiting his role in political dialogue.

“You have worked too hard and made too many sacrifices for us to just "quit." That's not an option for any of us,” the letter reads. “The reason we all worked so hard is to make a better future for coming generations–as I often said, this isn't about just the next election, but the next generation. That battle is far from over.”

Huckabee has long insisted he doesn’t think John McCain would ask him to join the ticket as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, telling CNN’s Larry King on Wednesday that he’s not “sitting by the phone waiting on that call.”

So what will his role be? “We are trying to formulate the plans for transitioning into an effort to work to help the cause in this year's elections and then to continue having an impact on policy and issues beyond,” said Huckabee.

The letter says that he hopes to be able to soon detail those plans, adding, “I do not for one moment believe that our mission has been accomplished–just started. I hope you feel the same. We may be delayed, but not deterred!”

Huckabee reflected on his presidential bid after dropping out Tuesday night.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CNN) – A smiling and upbeat Mike Huckabee huddled with his traveling press corps one last time on the flight home to Little Rock following his exit from the 2008 presidential race.

“Clearly, things didn't go our way tonight and we had hoped they would, but when the inevitable is staring you in the face, you accept it,” Huckabee told reporters.

He had long said he would stay in the race until someone got the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. When it became clear tonight that McCain would, the former Arkansas governor decided it was time to bow out.

“Ohio and the other states weren't close,” said Huckabee, “it was pretty obvious, I'd been through a lot of elections before. I know when one is on its way to being close and when one isn't. This one wasn't.”

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Sen. John McCain clinched the GOP presidential nomination Tuesday, according to CNN projections.

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) – Sen. John McCain accepted the mantle of presumptive GOP nominee for president, thanking his supporters in Rhode Island, Texas, Ohio and Vermont — states he won Tuesday night to take him over the top in delegates.

"I am very, very grateful and pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a great sense of responsibility, that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States," the Arizona senator said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee quit the presidential race after it became clear that McCain would win the Republican nomination, after winning Tuesday's GOP primaries.

"It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but now what must be — and that is a united party," Huckabee told supporters in Dallas, Texas, after losing Tuesday's primary in Texas and three other states.

Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, thanked volunteers for "keeping the faith" and told them, "I'd rather lose an election than lose the principles that got me into politics in the first place."

"Tonight, I hope that our battle was never about us," he said. "It was about our country and our liberty. And now we join with Sen. McCain and the rest of our party to continue that battle."

Huckabee drew first blood in the GOP race, winning the January 3 Iowa caucuses, and won several Deep South states in the February 5 "Super Tuesday" contests. But he struggled to gain traction outside the region, while McCain won big states like New York and California handily and swept Tuesday's contests in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Huckabee's exit leaves anti-war Texas congressman Ron Paul, a former Libertarian presidential candidate, as McCain's sole remaining opponent.

McCain's campaign — his second run for the White House — was largely written off for dead last summer amid outspoken opposition from the party's conservative base, a major staff shakeup and disappointing fund-raising.

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Residents sign in to vote in Chillicothe, Ohio.

NEW YORK (CNN) – The economy was an overwhelming concern for Republican primary voters in both Ohio and Texas Tuesday, according to an early CNN exit poll.

In Ohio, 43 percent of GOP primary voters said the economy was the most important issue this election, while 22 percent cited Iraq, 19 percent ranked illegal immigration, and 15 percent said terrorism.

In Texas, 26 percent of Republican primary voters said the economy was the top concern, followed by 23 percent who cited terrorism, 21 percent who noted Iraq, and 16 percent who said illegal immigration.

Related: Mike Huckabee shares a moment with rival supporters

– CNN Political Editor Mark Preston

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) — Mike Huckabee would like to stay in the Republican race, says his campaign director Ed Rollins, who adds: “we’re not going to run a fool’s mission.”

Rollins says the campaign does not plan on making any announcements about Huckabee’s fate until they sift through the Texas results. Not only do they want to make sure Senator John McCain has the 1,191 committed delegates he needs to secure the nomination, they want to see if Huckabee can eat into the double-digit lead McCain held in polls going into Tuesday’s Texas race.

Earlier, Huckabee told reporters outside a Texas polling station that his campaign was still hoping for a win in the state, but that either way, they would take Wednesday to assess the landscape and plan their next move. One aide said as late as Monday night that the campaign was looking into events in Mississippi.

But if McCain does become the official nominee, Huckabee says he will definitely back his Republican rival. He has also made it clear he will not try to run on a third party ticket. As for what the future could hold if Huckabee’s hopes for an upset in Texas are dashed: Rollins won’t rule out another try for the White House in 2012.

– CNN’s Mary Snow

Watch Huckabee discuss his future in the presidential race.

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) – Mike Huckabee struck an optimistic note as he visited voters at a Dallas polling station Tuesday morning, but said no matter what the results are, he will spend Wednesday at home in Little Rock, Arkansas pondering his next move.

“After tonight, regardless of the outcome, whether we win or if we don't, we've got to sit down tomorrow, and tomorrow's going to be a day of sort of looking at the landscape and seeing what's ahead and where do we go from here,” Huckabee told reporters.

The former Arkansas governor has staked his future in this race on Texas, spending far more time here than in Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont which are also voting Tuesday. He argues that Texas conservatives have an “independent streak” that he believes will cause them to buck the national trend and rally around him because of the issues that differentiate him from Republican presidential rival John McCain.

Polls indicate otherwise, giving McCain a significant lead not only in Texas but in all March 4 states, and has accumulated nearly enough delegates to officially clinch the GOP nomination. Nevertheless, Huckabee remains hopeful.

"We think it’s going to be a good day for us in Texas, we’re very encouraged by the activity we’ve had the last few days,” said Huckabee. “We’re going to remain very optimistic that this could be a big day and win Texas."

Huckabee has often questioned whether McCain can energize the base of the party, and Tuesday warned that if McCain is the nominee that will be one of his toughest tasks.

“If John McCain is the nominee, I think Republicans will support him,” Huckabee told CNN. “Will they line up and do what they have historically done that causes us to win rather than lose elections, which is the knocking on the doors and making the phone calls? That's going to be the challenge he'll have. He'll have to reach out and make those voters believe that he cares and will champion their issues, otherwise it'll be a tough sell.”

– CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt

DALLAS TO ABILENE, Texas (CNN) – If you decide to nap on the Huckabee plane, you do so at your own peril.

Flying from Dallas to Abilene Monday morning after a rally, Sarah Huckabee — Mike Huckabee’s daughter and a senior campaign staffer — snuck up to the front of the plane where her father was sitting by the window in the first row. Having gotten up early to do the rounds of the news networks’ morning shows, Huckabee had nodded off.

Sarah quickly snapped a picture of her father “holding” a piece of paper reading “When I close my eyes, it feels like I'm on Air Force One.”

Cheers and applause erupted from the plane as the staff and traveling press achieved the weeks-long goal of photographing the former Arkansas governor in a game of “Nap Tag.”

In recent weeks, “Nap Tag” has grown from a friendly rivalry between Huckabee’s bodyman and the Fox producer into fun for the whole plane as everyone waits for the next victim to close his or her eyes for too long.

When the hapless and weary traveler is good and asleep, a group gathers and scribbles a joke on a piece of paper with a marker. Someone then holds it in front of the napper while another conspirator pops off a picture.

One staffer caught dozing changed camps while he slept, as “Obama ‘08” floated under his chin. Campaign Chairman Ed Rollins claimed “You won’t take me alive” while he slept, and Gina Norris held up the doubtful “M.H. can beat me up” in front of husband Chuck.

Most are inside jokes developed after weeks in each other’s company, others not appropriate for a family website. But after weeks of Nap Tag, only a handful haven’t been caught slumbering and often proudly declare that we won’t get them. We’ll see about that.

– CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt

Gov. Barbour speaks as Gov. Perdue looks on during Monday's endorsement of Sen. McCain.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Half a dozen Republican governors backed Arizona Sen. John McCain Monday over former GOP Arkansas governor and ex-National Governors Association chairman Mike Huckabee.

McCain “will present a very clear choice against whomever the Democrats nominate,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, backing McCain in advance of his state’s March 11 primary. “I don’t think I have to convince anybody of how liberal Sen. Clinton is. But, remarkable as it may seem, Sen. Obama’s voting record is even more liberal than hers. Barack Obama, if he wins the Democratic nomination, will be the most liberal candidate for president of the United States in the history of our country. And Sen. Clinton is about as liberal.”

“It will be the clearest contrasts between philosophies and world views that this nation, I believe, has ever seen,” added Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Although McCain leads in the GOP delegate count and is the party’s presumptive nominee, he has had trouble winning over the party’s conservative base. Barbour acknowledged Monday that “John McCain is not as conservative as Haley Barbour.” But the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee said it was “hugely unlikely” that a lot of conservatives would not support McCain in a match-up against Clinton or Obama, adding: “It is also something that we ought to be happy about – that McCain appeals so readily to moderates, to people who are not conservatives at all. That gives him a better chance of winning in November.”

Barbour and Perdue also sought to downplay the fundraising gap between McCain and the two remaining Democratic contenders. Hillary Clinton raised three times McCain’s $12 million haul in February; Barack Obama, whose campaign has not yet released his February fundraising totals, has said the Illinois senator has raised considerably more than that.

“This isn’t about dollars,” added Perdue. “It’s about the heart and soul and the votes of the American people.”

In a statement released by the McCain campaign, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley joined Barbour and Perdue in endorsing McCain, who headlined a major gathering at last month’s annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Washington.

–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart