MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former Arkansas Gov. and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has endorsed Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor.
Cavanaugh’s campaign announced the endorsement Monday in a news release.
“I have known Twinkle for over a decade and consider her to be a friend and a staunch Republican ally,” Huckabee said in the release. “We need leaders who are not afraid to fight for their core values and have the courage to hold their peers accountable when they stray from their promises to the people.”
Perhaps more meaningful than text of the endorsement are Huckabee’s spoken words via a radio spot also released by the Cavanaugh campaign. In it, Huckabee affirms his support for Cavanaugh and attacks her opponent, State Rep. Will Ainsworth of Guntersville, for not supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP Primary.
“Will Ainsworth is trying to make you believe he has a relationship with Donald Trump that simply doesn’t exist,” Huckabee says. “While Ainsworth was campaigning against Donald Trump, Twinkle Cavanaugh was going door to door for in multiple states.”
“He’s the real con artist,” he says.
LISTEN: Campaign ad featuring Mike Huckabee released by Twinkle Cavanaugh’s campaign.
Ainsworth responded by pointing out that he, too, has received high-profile endorsements, and then had attacks of his own for Cavanaugh.
“We’ve both received high-profile endorsements from well-known media figures. I’m proud, for example, that Rick and Bubba have endorsed our candidacy and promoted our campaign on their radio show, which is the most popular throughout the state, Ainsworth said. “But, ultimately, this campaign isn’t about endorsements. It’s about whether voters want their lieutenant governor to be a career swamp politician, bureaucrat, lobbyist like Twinkle or whether they want a pro-life, pro-gun, pro-Trump, Christian conservative outsider like me.”
The winner of the July 17 primary will face Democratic nominee Will Boyd in November.
The lieutenant governor presides over the Alabama Senate. The position is most notable because the lieutenant governor becomes the state’s governor if the sitting governor steps down, dies or is impeached.
The office has been vacant since April 2017 when Kay Ivey succeeded Robert Bentley as governor following his resignation.
The Associate Press contributed to this report.