Huckabee, with wins in South, vows to fight on

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

February 6, 2008

WASHINGTON - Mike Huckabee said yesterday that he would press on with his White House candidacy, emboldened by wins in the South.

"The one way you can't win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I'm going to answer the bell for every round of this fight," the former Arkansas governor told The Associated Press from Little Rock.

Huckabee beat rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney in West Virginia, Alabama and his home state, and early returns showed him leading in a few more states. He said he would emerge as the alternative to McCain, the GOP front-runner.

"I've got to say that Mitt Romney was right about one thing - this is a two-man race. He was just wrong about who the other man in the race was. It's me, not him," Huckabee said.

Huckabee suggested that only he and McCain would be left standing after 21 states held Republican primaries and caucuses yesterday. He said his supporters, many of them fellow Christian evangelicals, sent a strong message to Romney, who has cast himself as the strongest conservative in the race.

"The conservatives are in the South, and the conservative base of the Republican Party - I'm winning it. And there's just no way to argue that," Huckabee said. "Romney had to be able to show that he was really pulling those conservative votes, and he's not."

Republican results

Total delegates at stake 2,380

Total needed to nominate 1,191

Previous Won Other/super

totals yesterday delegates Total

John McCain 96 270 17 383

Mitt Romney 93 43 9 135

Mike Huckabee 26 25 3 54

Ron Paul 6 0 0 6

McCAIN

N.Y.

R.I.

Conn.

N.J.