Mike Huckabee resigns from Country Music Association Foundation board after backlash

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has resigned from the board for the Country Music Association Foundation. Mr. Huckabee’s election to the board had been swiftly criticized in the music community. On Wednesday, Mr. Huckabee was announced as a new member of board of the directors for the charitable arm of the association that runs the annual CMA Awards and the CMA Festival. Within 24 hours, a prominent artist manager sent a letter to the foundation calling Huckabee’s election “grossly offensive” due to his political opinions and associations with the National Rifle Association. Jason Owen, who leads Sandbox Management representing artists like Little Big Town, Faith Hill and Kacey Musgraves, said in the letter that his clients would no longer support the foundation. The CMA said Thursday that Mr. Huckabee resigned immediately. link

From the Tennessean: 

 Less than one day after his appointment was announced, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee resigned Thursday from the CMA Foundation board of directors after criticism from multiple members of the country music industry. "I genuinely regret that some in the industry were so outraged by my appointment that they bullied the CMA and the Foundation with economic threats and vowed to withhold support for the programs for students if I remained," Huckabee wrote in his letter of resignation. "I’m somewhat flattered to be of such consequence when all I thought I was doing was voluntarily serving on a non-profit board without pay in order to (continue) my decades of advocacy for the arts and especially music." Jason Owen, co-president of Monument Records and owner at Sandbox Entertainment, called the appointment a "grossly offensive decision" in an email to the association's CEO Sarah Trahern and CMA Foundation executive Tiffany Kerns. Owen wrote 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 fathers to a young son and are expecting twins. Owen said that Huckabee’s stance on the LGBT community “made it clear my family is not welcome in his America.”