Huckabee, who ran for president last year, released on the Web a videotaped endorsement of the former state House speaker, who is running to the right of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in the Senate GOP primary race.

“I’ve never seen a more energetic, articulate, principled conservative as Marco Rubio,” Huckabee said. “There’s no one I’ve seen on the Republican scene in a long time that is more committed to standing very, very firm on the things that matter to most of us like holding down spending, keeping taxes low and not believing that the government handouts is the way to build the economy.”