‘Please Welcome… Never Mind’
• Well, that was fast… less than one day after his appointment to the Board of Directors of the CMA Foundation was announced; former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has left the building. As reported by The Tennessean and other sources, Huckabee’s microscopic tenure with the CMA Foundation came to an abrupt end following a barrage of criticism from multiple members of the Country music industry as well as fans — much of it based on Huckabee’s well documented stance on LGBT issues. In a brief and hastily penned statement, Amber Williams, CMA VP of Communications and Talent Relations said, “The CMA Foundation has accepted former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s resignation from its board of directors, effective immediately.”
Jason Owen, co-President of Monument Records and owner of Sandbox Entertainment, classified Huckabee’s appointment as a “grossly offensive decision” in an email to the association’s CEO Sarah Trahern and CMA Foundation executive Tiffany Kerns. Owen, who represents Little Big Town, Faith Hill, Dan + Shay and Midland, among others, said that due to Huckabee’s election to the CMA Foundation’s board, neither his companies, nor anyone they represent would continue to support the Foundation.
Owen and his husband Sam are the parents of a young son and are expecting twins. Owen wrote that Huckabee’s stance on the LGBT community “made it clear my family is not welcome in his America.” He added, “Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact upon young people all across this country. Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is. What a shameful choice.”
The CMA Foundation is the charitable arm of the Country Music Association, devoted to growing and supporting music education programs across the country. Its board consists of 12 members.
