Uncle Sugar has apparently provided Mike Huckabee with a polling bounce.
The latest survey from Democratic PPP released Wednesday showed the former Arkansas governor surging among Republican voters nationwide in the wake of his head-scratching comment about the female libido.
According to the poll, 16 percent of GOP primary voters said they would prefer to see Huckabee as the party’s presidential nominee in 2016, making him the top Republican in the field. Only a month ago, PPP showed Huckabee polling at 11 percent and trailing both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) among GOP voters.
PPP’s latest survey was conducted Jan. 23-26. Huckabee made his instantly-infamous remark during a speech at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Jan. 23.
“If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government then so be it! Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be,” he said at the meeting.
The comment was rebuked by RNC chairman Reince Priebus and Rick Santorum of all people said Huckabee probably should have phrased it differently.
But even amid the ensuing uproar, Huckabee seemed to know that he had struck a chord with a Republican audience. Rather than apologize, he promptly circulated an email to supporters in an effort to raise money off the controversy.
Wednesday’s poll indicated that Republican women weren’t bothered by what he said either. With 16 percent support, Huckabee was the top choice among female GOP voters.
