The Mike Huckabee campaign website: A review

image

Mike Huckabee announces he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. (Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Tuesday morning, after a salute from the Boy Scouts and a teen duet of the national anthem, Mike Huckabee took the stage in Hope, Ark., to announce he would seek the presidential nomination for the Republican party. The former Arkansas governor is the third candidate to enter the race this week, rounding out the list of conservative contenders to a neat six.

Money problems aside, Huckabee is an experienced political personality with outspoken conservative views on the Second Amendment, abortion, and — most bravely — Beyoncé. His unwavering honesty and small-town roots are directly reflected in his campaign website, which is a bit disorganized but charming in its own way. Below, in another installment of RevURL, we dive into the former Fox commentator’s new digital headquarters.

Look and feel

image

Huckabee’s website has been loading slowly all day. But when it does finally appear on your screen, you’ll be greeted with more bells and whistles than an Arkansas County carnival. Unlike almost all of his competitors, he’s opted for a static page with a moving carousel so that, without scrolling, content simply fades from one item to the next. Included in the module is a video about Huckabee’s tenure as governor, a sign-up page for his newsletter, a page for undecided voters and a photo of him playing bass guitar (next to links to his social media pages).

This setup is bookended by two vertical bars. The bar on the left promotes his social media pages and displays a calendar of upcoming events. The column on the right, adorably dubbed “I Like MIKE,” allows supporters to write in with a short explanation of why they’re supporting him. I regret to inform the nation that he has yet to hear from Chuck Norris.

The whole thing is very busy. Nothing like a slick, tech-company website. But that somehow fits Huckabee as a candidate. He himself has said that the United States’ two coasts live in their own isolated culture bubbles. Why would he, a salt of the Earth guy from a small town, care anything about sophisticated Web design? He’s clearly done things his way, even taking a page out of the Clinton playbook to spruce up his 404 page.

image

That being said, some things about the design are just wonky. Aside from the slow loading, there’s lots of weird, excess space on each page. In some areas of the site, a new header in the shape of a widow’s peak appears at the top of the screen. When you scroll down, it sticks with you, distracting your eye from the actual text. No need for this fancy stuff, Mike. We’re just simple folk who want simple scrolling.

image

Logo

image

Huckabee’s logo is pretty typical. Beneath his very catchy tagline, “From Hope to Higher Ground,” it reads “Huckabee 2016.” His name and the year, which are separated by a fun little flourish of stars, are sitting atop the aforementioned red-and-blue widow’s peak.

I’m grateful Huckabee didn’t try to awkwardly integrate the American flag, or the shape of the United States, into the lettering of his name. We’ve seen too many candidates play with fire (and/or fireballs) and get burned in that arena.

Text

image

Huckabee joins a small group of candidates who are actually willing to offer a permanent record of what they think. His awkwardly laid out landing page for “Issues” details Huckabee’s views on 12 separate topics of interest: the Second Amendment, border security, education, energy, health care, Israel, national security, seniors, spending and debt, tax reform, veterans, and the always-amorphous family values category. At least voters who sign up to support Huckabee will know what exactly they’re supporting.

Social media

image

Aside from his very active Facebook page, many of Huckabee’s social media accounts are pretty idle. As of noon this morning, he hadn’t posted on Instagram since April or tweeted from his personal account since May 3. (He’s just now picking up steam on those accounts this afternoon). And his newly minted Google Plus page had just 11 followers when this went live. But then again, it’s Google Plus, so, yeah.

It’s a safe bet that Huckabee’s campaign is looking for a social media intern.

Rating

Three and a half patriotic widow’s peaks out of five. Points deducted for lack of Chuck Norris.

Read the entire RevURL series here. Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter or email her here.