The first speaker for the 2021-22 American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series will be former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Governor Huckabee served as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1993-1996 and then as Governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007, becoming chair of the National Governors Association in 2005. He was a candidate for president in 2008 and 2016. Throughout his career, he has also been a minister, a broadcaster and a musician.

Governor Huckabee spoke on Harding’s campus on September 13, 2001, and he will return to discuss the continuities and changes he has seen in the political arena in the last two decades. He will share what he has learned and experienced through his own path in politics.