Mike Huckabee has said he won’t step into the 2012 presidential race unless he knows he can win. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, he’s at least poised to clear the first hurdle in that quest – the Republican primary.
In the poll, Huckabee drew support from fully one quarter of registered Republican voters, placing him at the front of a crowded GOP field. It’s the latest of a number of recent polls to show Huckabee emerging as the top choice for Republicans heading into 2012, even though he — and virtually every other potential candidate — has yet to announce an official candidacy.
Mitt Romney placed second in the poll at 21%, with the rest of the pack far behind. Newt Gingrich, who launched a campaign website Thursday but stopped short of forming an exploratory committee, came in third with 13%, followed by Sarah Palin (12%), and Ron Paul (6%).
Huckabee has led several national polls of a potential GOP primary recently, and he, along with Mitt Romney, consistently poll in the top two slots in most statewide polls as well. His broad appeal to moderate and conservative voters would help him compete in a wide range of states were he to again run for President, as he did in 2008.
The poll did not pit Huckabee against President Obama in a hypothetical general election contest, though it did test Romney and Tim Pawlenty in head-to-head matchups with Obama, possibly because those two candidates have shown some of the clearest signs yet of moving toward full-fledged candidacies. Romney has raised a massive stockpile of campaign cash, and Pawlenty, though little known nationally, has tried to boost his profile by releasing several theatrical trailers of what a Pawlenty presidency might look like.
Obama led comfortably in both of those contests, topping Romney 49% to 40%, and leading Pawlenty 50% to 31%.
The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll was conducted February 24-28 among 1,000 adults nationwide.
