Janet Huckabee

Janet McCain Huckabee (born July 16, 1955) is an American politician, political figure and the wife of former 2008 and 2016 Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. She served as the First Lady of Arkansas from July 1996 until January 2007.

Janet McCain Huckabee was born on July 16, 1955, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the fourth of five siblings, and moved with her family as an infant to Hope, Arkansas. She is the daughter of Pat (Potter) Stephens, who served four terms as Hempstead County Clerk, from 1965 to 1972, and Angus Bouie McCain. She graduated from Hope High School in 1973, and married her high school sweetheart Mike Huckabee in May of the following year. Within two years of their marriage, she was diagnosed with spinal cancer. Faced with the possibility of paralysis and the inability to have children, she underwent surgery and six weeks of radiation therapy. She eventually recovered and gave birth to three children: two sons, John Mark and David, and a daughter, Sarah. Prior to becoming First Lady of Arkansas, she was involved with the Texarkana, Arkansas Parent Teacher Association. She served two terms as its president. She also was active in the Beech Street First Baptist Church and with the ACTS-TV station. She has worked for the Texarkana Public Schools as a substitute teacher, for the St. Michael Hospital, and as a pharmacist's assistant.

In 2002, she was the Republican Party nominee for Arkansas Secretary of State in the same year her husband was seeking a second term as governor. She was defeated by the Democratic Party nominee, State Land Commissioner Charlie Daniels. Her husband fared better in his re-election bid, defeating his Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher.

The following year, she earned an undergraduate degree in organizational management from John Brown University. For a time, she worked in a management capacity with Hanke Brothers Construction Company of Hot Springs until her husband began his 2008 presidential bid.