Huckabee's Iowa win throws U.S. Republicans in turmoil

By Steve Holland - Analysis

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Mike Huckabee's surprising victory in Iowa on Thursday turned the Republican race for U.S. president upside down, but his path to the party's presidential nomination was far from certain.

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and a Baptist preacher who hails from the same town as former Democratic President Bill Clinton -- tiny Hope, Arkansas -- rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians and overcame some late campaign missteps to win Iowa.

Iowa kicked off the state-by-state battles to determine which Republican and Democratic candidates will face off in a November election to replace George W. Bush as president in January 2009.

Huckabee's campaign is on a shoestring budget and many from his party will have to wrestle with whether his victory in conservative Iowa translates into his being the most electable Republican nationwide.

The come-from-behind Huckabee victory meant the race was still wide open, but put Mitt Romney -- a multimillionaire former governor of Massachusetts who would be the first Mormon president -- in a tight spot.

Romney appeared to be poised for a second-place finish in a state where he spent millions of dollars and had a big lead only months ago, before Huckabee came out of nowhere to pull ahead of the crowded Republican field.

The Huckabee victory would appear to make New Hampshire, which next Tuesday holds the next contest on the road to the November presidential, a nearly must-win state for Romney, a former chief executive of management consulting firm Bain & Company who rose to prominence in 2002 for turning around the debt-ridden Salt Lake City Olympics.

The Romney campaign was hanging tough.