Janet McCain Huckabee defies easy categorization. Though staunchly traditional, she is no shrinking violet. As first lady of Arkansas, she earned the reputation of “First Tomboy” in local media for engaging in activities such as jet skiing the length of the Arkansas River to promote a 1996 conservation sales tax, bungee jumping, learning how to fly an airplane, and even jumping out of one.
In the heart of the German Colony in Jerusalem, when the Magazine visited the attractive, stately wife of Israel’s highly supportive American Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, instead of bungee jumping, she was rubbing the bellies of the Huckabees’ two adorable dogs, Gumbo, a Cavalier King Charles/Bichon, and Bandit, a Shih Tzu/Bichon mix.
When asked about her job, Huckabee made it clear that her position is that of wife, and that being the ambassador’s first lady is not a job.
Giving unto others
“I’m a spouse. God gave me my job description when I got married,” she explained: “To be faithful to my husband.”
The couple will be celebrating their 52nd anniversary in May, and Huckabee said they were both 18 when they married.
After she developed and was treated for spinal cancer, the couple had three children, her youngest now 43. They are John Mark Huckabee, a writer working for the Arkansas State Labor Department; David Huckabee, an entrepreneur and business owner; and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as press secretary to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019 and became governor of Arkansas in 2023 to the present.
While her husband trained and worked as a pastor, Huckabee served as a substitute teacher. She also has a long history of volunteering with several organizations, particularly those focused on disaster relief, humanitarian aid, housing, and community service.
Despite their busy schedules, she and her husband stayed active in their children’s lives, and now they are active in their grandchildren’s lives as well. Even after her husband became governor of Arkansas, they made it a point to do things together and tried to include their children in everything they did, even state dinners.
When discussing International Women’s Day, Huckabee said, “One thing women everywhere have in common is their nurturing instinct. They want to make sure their children are well cared for.” At the same time, she recognizes the balancing acts women face everywhere and their struggles with time management and family management.
“It would be wonderful if everyone had two parents, with one parent who could stay at home,” she said. But she understands that everyone is different and that families’ needs vary. Her mother divorced and raised five children as a single parent. Huckabee said that while many parents must work, many aren’t making enough money to be able to go to work and pay for childcare.
“Grandparents are great childcare, if you can get them,” she said. Unfortunately, that did not work for the Huckabees, who lived in Texas, while her family lived in Arkansas. She even attended a grandparenting conference before she came to Israel.
Husband Mike and daughter Sarah, she proudly stated, “are the only father-daughter [governor] combo.” Sarah’s husband, Bryan Sanders, the first gentleman of Arkansas, was a political consultant and pollster before Sarah’s election. “They have three children,” Huckabee added.
'Israel is where to be. This is where it all started'
When asked if she would have preferred going to any other country, she said, “Israel makes more sense for us. This is where it all started. Right here. I learn every day, visiting places like the City of David, the wet tunnels, or climbing Masada. Mike’s been coming to Israel since he was 17 years old, and me, since the mid-’80s. The difference is that these days, I don’t go home.”
She said when she went back to America for Thanksgiving, it didn’t quite feel like home, and admitted that after the four-year stint, she is likely to have to work to “reclaim” home and “reassociate” with her friends.
In the meantime, the Huckabees have tried to schedule regular Zoom meetings with their children and grandchildren, but the eight-hour time difference and the grandchildren’s activities make it challenging to actualize. “They are first free at around 2 a.m.,” she said sadly.
“Our grandchildren are very excited that their ‘Papa’ is the ambassador to Israel,” she said, and they have all been to Israel and plan to come again this summer. “I know I’m missing a key time of their lives,” Huckabee said of her five grandsons and two granddaughters. “When we got together last fall, the girls wanted to go shopping, and the boys wanted to go hunting.”
And yes, the First Tomboy is also an avid hunter. Her hunting credo is “Don’t shoot something you don’t plan to kill, and don’t kill anything you don’t plan to eat.”
She has hunted in all kinds of places and all kinds of animals, such as ducks, turkeys, and deer.
When asked what advice she could offer Israeli Jews who are concerned about visiting the United States amid rising antisemitism, she said, “This has been happening for 3,500 years.
“Now all media is instant and immediate. There is more social media, and there are more people. I would tell them what I was told when I jumped out of an airplane with the Golden Knights elite jump team of the US Army. They told me as I jumped, ‘Look up at the airplane as you jump.’”
She said the thought of looking up as she was jumping out of the airplane seemed crazy at the time, when she needed to concentrate on opening her parachute, but she did.
“I looked up, and it read ‘US Army,’ and it was then that I realized I was jumping with the best of the best! So, I would tell Israelis, be proud of your country. Be proud! If you don’t stand for something, you’re going to fail.”
She said her advice isn’t only for Jews. “As Christians, we’ve got to be able to stand up, too. Everything was founded on Judeo-Christian values.”
Retaining one's values despite external pressures
This brought us to the subject of political activist and commentator Tucker Carlson, who was planning his whirlwind interview in Israel with Mike Huckabee after accusing the ambassador of ignoring Israeli Christians.
“It all started right,” Huckabee explained. “Usually, as you grow up, you still retain the basic values you grew up with. Why did Tucker give up beliefs at his age?”
She said she would have loved to take Tucker to the City of David or the tunnels in Jerusalem. She said she would have shown him, “It’s not just about faith – it’s fact.” But, of course, Carlson never even left the airport [after the interview].
As I said goodbye to Huckabee, she mentioned that she is learning to speak and read Hebrew – perhaps another daredevil feat.
We owe the Huckabees a debt of gratitude for their unconditional support of Israel, and we owe their children and grandchildren a big thank you for loaning us their parents and grandparents.