Huckabee’s major achievement was a health program known as ARKids First, which he pushed through in 1997, his first full year in office. It extended coverage to children whose parents earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but still couldn’t afford private insurance. The number of children without health insurance had dropped from 22 percent when ARKids First was created to 6 percent in 2012.

“That was very unpopular at the time among his base, but immensely popular with the people he was governing,” says Terry Benham, who was political director of the Arkansas GOP while Huckabee was governor. “Instead of trying to play both sides on it, he just owned it, the good and the bad.”

To pay for his various initiatives, Huckabee raised taxes—gas taxes, sales taxes, a tax on beds in nursing homes. In his presidential runs, he likes to brag about cutting taxes more than 90 times, including a significant income tax cut. While he can take credit for that—and Huckabee once mockingly established a “Tax Me More Fund” open to any residents who felt they weren’t contributing enough—the state’s total tax bill increased on his watch, as did state spending and the number of state employees.