News Analysis: Huckabee a Republican front-runner in race to White House, but unlikely to stay there

Although former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is an early Republican front-runner for the 2016 presidential elections, he is unlikely to remain there, experts said.

Election season is slowly ramping up in the United States, with a slew of Republican candidates vying for a spot in the public eye. While the elections are still a long way away, Republican candidates are starting early in a bid to clinch their party's nomination to face likely 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

A recent CNN poll has Huckabee, the darling of social conservatives, in the lead over nearly a dozen other candidates, while the Real Clear Politics average of all polls shows him trailing former Florida Governor Jeb Bush by just an inch.

The development has surprised many observers, as several other candidates are considered more appealing, charismatic, and better-funded, and many reckon Huckabee will not last.

"Huckabee is a long shot," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua.

There are essentially four types of Republican voters -- social conservatives, Tea Party supporters, libertarians and establishment Republicans, with the last group being the largest. While popular among social conservatives, Huckabee is not the choice of establishment voters.

"So if you are not the establishment choice, that means you have to win the Tea Party and the social conservatives, and the likelihood of that happening is not very good for Huckabee," O'Connell said.

Still, other Republicans can learn much from Huckabee, who appeals to blue-collar voters, a group needed to clinch the White House, he said.

"Some of the things he's hitting on, like wage stagnation, are things that a lot of the other candidates should pick up on, but he's still a long shot," he added.

Most experts point to three candidates as the likely front-runners that will eventually face off against Clinton -- Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and rising star Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

Republicans need to focus first on working-class voters, as 2009 saw 50 percent of white working-class voters support President Barack Obama. But fast forward to this year, and that figure has dwindled to 27 percent, representing a chance for the Republican Party to clinch their vote.

"You've got to get all the blue-collar voters in the tent. If you get them in the tent, it's pretty hard to lose," O'Connell said.

The party must focus second on clinching the Hispanic vote, he added, referring to the growing demographic for whose vote both parties are battling.

Indeed, New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez, a Mexican-American, is viewed as a prime choice for vice president due to her weight among Hispanics. And if Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American, does not win the nomination, he would also be a top candidate for vice president.

Republicans are often viewed, fairly or unfairly, as the party of old, white men and as not inclusive of minorities. But the Republican Party knows that it must do a better job of reaching out to non-white voters in a bid to stay relevant in an increasingly multicultural country, in which whites will no longer comprise the majority by 2043, according to the U.S. Census. Endi