Though Mike Huckabee is out of the running for the GOP presidential nod, his supporters say he’s poised to lead evangelicals in politics. The Washington Times reports:

Mr. Huckabee’s inner circle says he’s the perfect bridge to re-establish the Christian right, which has suffered over the last decade, as a political force that speaks for millions of voters.

“He has become the leader of a new generation of Christian conservative voters,” said Rex Nelson, who was communications director when Mr. Huckabee was Arkansas’ governor. “The old leadership has either passed on in the case of [the Rev. Jerry] Falwell or become either irrelevant or out of touch – the Pat Robertson endorsement of Rudy Giuliani proves that.”

“There is nobody else you can identify outside of Mike Huckabee as a leading person to take on that role, really in a new era where evangelicals care about a lot of things like the environment and working with the poor,” Mr. Nelson said…

Mr. Huckabee is a former Southern Baptist pastor who has energized evangelical Republican voters this year, but his camp has been surprised at how little support evangelical leaders have offered and, in fact, how much they worked against him. That could signal a split between evangelical leaders and their supporters, which Mr. Huckabee’s supporters say leaves the field open for him, both among those religious values voters and a broader conservative audience.

Huckabee has said he will remain in GOP race until the nomination is clinched. Beyond that, his advisers have floated a couple of possible futures: RNC chairman, perhaps? Huckabee has “become the voice and face of conservative America,” said former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, one of Mr. Huckabee’s early supporters.

Do you agree?