Huckabee’s Foot Soldiers

If Mike Huckabee's second-place finish in South Carolina seemed to rob his campaign of some momentum, it's not because the Harris twins weren't trying. The 19-year-old brothers are cofounders of Huck’s Army, a 14,000-member (and growing) grass-roots Web effort to catapult the former Arkansas governor into the White House. It was, after all, a Huck's Army e-mail that inspired actor Chuck Norris to get involved.

Home-schooled south of Portland, Ore., the evangelical teens have been organizing online since 2005, when they launched Rebelution, a youth ministry that has spawned a series of conferences and a book due out in April. They define that project as "a teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture." Now as Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, is forced to cut back on expenses, Brett and Alex Harris are calling on the volunteers of Huck's Army to provide the campaign with support and infrastructure. NEWSWEEK's Brian Braiker recently spoke with Alex about his man's loss in South Carolina, Fred Thompson's decision to pull out of the race and what Huckabee meant when he said he wants to bring the Constitution in line with "God's standards." Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How are you feeling coming off this second-place finish in South Carolina?
Alex Harris: I definitely think it's a bump in the road. But you know what? Mitt Romney was supposed to win Iowa, but he didn't. Rudy Giuliani wasn't supposed to finish behind Ron Paul in every single race. It's the craziest race we've ever seen, and it may not even be settled after Super Tuesday.

Fred Thompson just dropped out. That must be welcome news.
That's probably the greatest news we could get. Fred Thompson appeals to a lot of the same voters, so we're hoping there will be a whole domino effect of some conservatives moving back to Huckabee.

What is it about Huckabee for you guys? The fact that he's an evangelical, or that you like his politics?
When we found out he was a Christian that was great, but his being Christian wasn't enough for us. We were looking for someone who was electable, who could bring leadership experience, has a proven track record, common sense. Being a Christian can almost be a downside if the [candidate's] not competent, because they're not going to give good testament to Christ.

Which may be why critics say Huckabee's base appears to be limited to socially conservative Christians.
The stereotype that his supporters are evangelical is driven by the mainstream media. The New York Times story on Huck's Army called us "young evangelicals," but it never mentions that our organizer in Michigan is Catholic and our organizer in South Carolina is an atheist. When ABC News was doing a piece, they said they needed us to find two young evangelical members of Huck's Army to interview. If they had just asked us for two members of Huck's Army, that would have been easy. We had trouble even thinking of two young evangelicals. The media is looking for that angle, and that has hurt Huckabee.