By Will Mari and Cailin Magruder, SeattlePoliticore

HOUSTON- He preached to the choir.

Literally.

On Sunday, former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee urged evangelical voters to make their voices heard as he visited supporters at Grace Community Church south of Houston.

Grace’s Pastor Steve Riggle introduced Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, as the election’s conscious candidate for social conservatives.

He urged his congregation to vote, and to base their decision on “virtue, values, vision and vocation.” Each church bulletin held a small card with voting information.

While the church couldn’t endorse a candidate, Riggle personally backed Huckabee and introduced him to two standing rounds of applause.

“I’m voting for Gov. Mike Huckabee,” he announced, to loud cheers. More cheers followed, along with a standing ovation as Huckabee took the stage.

The bass-playing pastor thanked the worship team. Then he couldn’t resist one of his now patented folksy asides.

“I will say what Jesus would have said in the New Testament, a beatitude that would have been there, had he been in a similar position that I’m in today … blessed are the brief, for they shall be invited again.”

Huckabee, in his role as a sort of presidential pastor on the stump, talked about the necessity of Christians to be the light of the world, recalling a youth conference in 1972 as a pivotal moment in his life.

He urged the congregation to “let their light shine” by not forgetting that they can make an impact:

“If you do not illuminate the darkness, there will be no light for this world, and people will stumble and they will fall for a lack of the light. But since you are the light, your light matters. And it matters more when things get really, really dark. Please never minimize [the fact that] that your voice, your life, truly does matter, and it matters more in the darkness than it does anywhere else … It’s more important that your light shine when you’re at work, when you’re at school and when you’re at the voting booth, … Wherever’s there’s darkness, that’s where the light means the most, and counts the most. Let your light shine.”

Church remembers responded warmly to Huckabee’s five-minute talk.

Three local high school students, all 17 years old, said they were bummed that they were too young to go to the polls on Tuesday and vote for Huckabee.

“America needs God,” said Issac Elsner, one of the politically outspoken teens.  He had no shortage of opinions about Huckabee and the rest of the presidential candidates. 

Elsner seems to feel more passionate about abortion issues than the adults at the church. He believes that abortion should be illegal in all instances, but he qualified his statement by saying that programs for young pregnant women should encourage adoption. 

Jordan Yacdrouch enjoyed seeing Huckabee just as much as his friends. Yacdrouch has been a member of Grace for about a decade. He’s drawn to Huckabee because of shared social values.

Elsner and Yacdrouch’s friend, Stephen Lee, has been attending the church his whole life. He couldn’t fathom why any, if not most, of the youth vote was gravitating toward Sen. Barack Obama. 

None of the guys could understand why Huckabee wasn’t the clear choice for America.
Issac’s mother, Sarah Elsner, shares many of the views of her conservative son. The clear choice for her is Huckabee. “I like him because he represents my values,” said Elsner. “He walks the walk.” Elsner identified Huckabee’s “love for God,” and his stances on abortion and traditional marriage as the key to her support.

“The family is the core,” she said. “I feel like a message needs to be sent.”

Her son and his friends say Huckabee should continue to campaign no matter what happens on Tuesday, and perhaps start a bid for a write-in candidacy. Mrs. Elsner has a different idea. They’ve been Huck fans since last fall.

“I’d like to see him as vice president,” Elsner’s friend, Patricia Woldtredt, said. If Sen. John McCain added Huckabee to the ticket, it would go a long way to reassuring her that the Arizona senator is serious about reaching out to the evangelical community.

“God holds the heart of a king,” Elsner added, and both feel confident in the ultimate result of the election. They still hope a conservative comes out ahead, however. To reinforce her point, Elsner quoted Proverbs 29:2: “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

It’s the values, and not the suit, that impresses conservatives.

“The hope is not in the man … but he is a godly man with values that represent us,” Elsner said.

“The values make the man,” Woldtredt said. “It’s not the charisma.”

Humberto and Hilda Cantu also enjoyed Huckabee’s surprise visit, but neither are committed to a candidate yet.

“I don’t know yet but I’ll probably know by Tuesday,” said Humberto. But after further reflection, Humberto admitted that he did want Huckabee to win, if only because he’s the very definition of a political underdog.

But the visiting Catholic duo were a little burnt out on all the recent media attention on Texas.

That being said, both said they were impressed by Huckabee’s genuineness. The couple is socially conservative, and think Huckabee is the best standard bearer of their beliefs on the national level.

“You want the same values,” Hilda said.

“I think it’s important for a leader to be a Christian,” Humberto added.