Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Mike Huckabee swept to victory in the Kansas Republican presidential caucuses yesterday, beating his party's presumptive nominee John McCain by a margin of more than 2-1.

Huckabee also won in Louisiana, where the former Arkansas governor had 43 percent of the vote to 42 percent for Arizona Senator McCain, Fox News Channel reported. Huckabee captured 60 percent of the vote in Kansas to 24 percent for McCain and 11 percent for Texas Representative Ron Paul. The Washington state caucuses were too close to call.

Huckabee, challenging McCain for the party's more conservative voters, said he won't heed calls to pull out of the race, as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney did last week. A candidate needs 1,191 delegates to win the Republican nomination, and McCain led with 719 delegates before today, according to the Associated Press.

The Kansas win gave Huckabee all 36 of that state's delegates at stake today for a total of 234, the AP said.

``People across America are gravitating towards our campaign and realizing that there is still a choice,'' Huckabee, 52, told reporters in Washington, D.C., after the Kansas votes were counted. ``That's what we've said all along: that this race is far from over.''

Not Quitting

In Washington state, McCain led with 26 percent to Huckabee's 24 percent and Paul's 21 percent, with 87 percent of precincts reporting, Fox News Channel said on its Web site. Eighteen of Washington's 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated based on the caucuses yesterday. Another 19 will be selected in a Feb. 19 primary. Three other delegates, party officials, are officially unpledged.

Huckabee, considered a possible vice presidential running mate with McCain, confirmed reports that Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, had called him in recent days and asked him to drop out. Huckabee said he declined ``with all due respect'' because Perry already had backed McCain.

``Am I quitting? Let's get that settled right now. No, I'm not,'' Huckabee said earlier in the day in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who campaigned in the state with McCain, had predicted its conservative Christians would gravitate to Huckabee.

``The state is well-positioned for Mike Huckabee,'' Brownback said. ``It's a very tough dynamic for John McCain.''

`Authentic Conservative'

Huckabee said Kansans decided he was the ``authentic conservative in this race,'' according to a statement on his campaign's Web site.

Kansas has voted for the Republican presidential candidate throughout the last 60 years, with the exception of former Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. President George W. Bush won 62 percent of the vote in 2004.

A new Newsweek nationwide survey of Republican voters showed McCain, 71, widening his lead with 51 percent support to 32 percent for Huckabee and 6 percent for Paul. The poll was taken on the evening of Feb. 7 after Romney withdrew.

The telephone survey, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, included 463 Republicans with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Paul said in a message to supporters posted on his Web site that while he is ``determined to fight on,'' he plans to scale back his national campaign staff. He also repeated his pledge that he won't mount a third party bid in the general election -- Paul ran as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1988.

Paul was the top fundraiser among the Republicans in the fourth quarter of last year, taking in $19.9 million. Still, he's amassed no more than 21 delegates so far.

To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net; Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 10, 2008 08:35 EST