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Potential baggage: Huckabee has been criticized by fiscal conservatives for raising taxes and increasing spending as governor of Arkansas. By the time he left office, the conservative Cato Institute slapped him with an \"F\" grade for failing to adhere to small-government principles. Not even a day into his second presidential race, the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative political advocacy group, went on the air in Iowa and South Carolina with $100,000 in ads slamming him for raising taxes in Arkansas.

Family tree: Huckabee and his wife Janet were high school sweethearts at Hope High School. Their first date was at a truck stop where they chowed down on cheeseburgers after Janet's basketball game. They got married the following year -- on May 25, 1974 -- and have three children and four grandchildren.

The other guy from Hope: President Bill Clinton's conveniently-named birthplace played an iconic role in the president's 1992 campaign. Huckabee, who was born in the same Arkansas town nearly nine years after Clinton, kicked off his campaign from his hometown with plans to go \"from Hope to higher ground\" (which also happens to be the title of his 2007 book on leadership). But unlike Clinton, Huckabee actually grew up in Hope. (The 42nd president spent his formative years in Hot Springs, Arkansas).

Also known as: The man of the \"moral majority.\" In 2008, Huckabee was the presidential choice for many voters in the influential religious bloc of the GOP. (Nearly six in 10 Iowa caucus-goers in 2012 identified themselves as evangelical Christians.) Given the size of the 2016 Republican field, Huckabee could have more competition in courting evangelical voters in the primary from the likes of Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Why he has a beef with Beyonce: He took a shot at pop royalty in his most recent book when he called Beyonce's song lyrics \"obnoxious and toxic mental poison,\" slammed rapper Jay-Z for \"exploiting his wife as a sex object,\" and suggested Beyonce's dancing is \"best left for the privacy of the bedroom.\" In an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz on \"This Week,\" Huckabee stood by his criticism but pointed out that he also called Beyonce a \"wonderful talent.\"

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