WRAPUP 2-Huckabee wins Republican contest in Kansas

(Adds details, quotes, background)

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee easily won the Republican presidential contest in Kansas on Saturday, showing signs of life in a nominating race front-runner John McCain has nearly sewed up.

Huckabee captured about 60 percent of the vote in Kansas, one of three states holding Republican contests on Saturday. Nebraska and Washington also vote in the Republican race to choose a candidate in November's presidential election.

Final results in the other two states, and in three Democratic presidential contests scheduled on Saturday, are expected after 9 p.m. EST/0200 GMT. The Democratic Party's race is much tighter, with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton nearly tied in the delegate count in the fight for the party's nomination.

Huckabee vowed during a morning appearance at a conference of conservative activists to continue his shoestring presidential campaign, which has made inroads with social and religious conservatives.

"Am I quitting? Let's get that settled right now. No, I'm not," Huckabee said to cheers at the conference in a Washington hotel.

McCain, an Arizona senator, appears almost certain to win the nomination after his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, dropped out on Thursday. Huckabee is now his only major opponent and is running a distant second. Texas Rep. Ron Paul also remains in the race.

McCain has rolled up more than 700 of the 1,191 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination at this summer's nominating convention.

But McCain still faces widespread opposition from conservatives unhappy with his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues. Huckabee said he would continue his campaign at least until McCain clinched the nomination.

"I know that I won't drop out until at least that happens and then we'll see," he told reporters, denying he was hoping to become McCain's vice-presidential running mate.

The win for Huckabee followed a strong showing in the South earlier in the week, when the Baptist minister won four Southern states and West Virginia in "Super Tuesday" voting involving nearly half of U.S. states.

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said later at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Clinton and Obama face off on Saturday in contests in Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington, which have a combined 194 total delegates up for grabs in a Democratic race where every delegate has become crucial.

Both campaigned in Maine, which has a contest on Sunday, and will appear on Saturday night at a Virginia Democratic Party fundraising dinner. Virginia votes on Tuesday.

During her stop in Maine, Clinton took aim at McCain and touted herself as the Democratic candidate with the experience to beat him in November.

"I can go toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain on national security," she told reporters, adding Republicans would try to make the race about that issue.

"It's imperative we have a Democratic candidate people can imagine as commander-in-chief standing there with Sen. McCain, and I believe that I cross that threshold," she said in Orono, Maine.

Huckabee took a veiled swipe at Clinton at the conservative meeting, noting that in Arkansas, he was "the only person who's ever run against the Clinton political machine and beat it."

Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, preceded Huckabee as Arkansas governor.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, Jeff Mason, Deborah Zabarenko; editing by Stuart Grudgings)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/