By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO — Having fallen far behind rival John McCain, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee all but acknowledged Wednesday that he won't be his party's nominee, say nothing of the nation's next president.

"Somebody forgot to tell you that this election is over … they forgot to tell me it's over, too," Mr. Huckabee told about 1,000 people crammed in a Collin County Community College Spring Creek Campus event room.

So why stay in? Why keep criss-crossing the country campaigning? Mr. McCain, after all, is practically assured within weeks of winning enough convention delegates to secure the GOP nomination.

"It's more important that we not just win elections, but win back what makes this country strong. We are staying in this race because we believe some issues are very critical," he said.

Among those issues: Better benefits for military veterans, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, securing the nation's southern border and respecting life from the time "it is conceived to the time of its natural death" by trying to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, also said he'd fight to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage between gay people.

"We cannot change the definition of family and marriage," he told the crowd.

The rally was designed to energize largely conservative Collin County — an area critical to a man billing himself as the only true conservative left in the presidential race.

As such, Mr. Huckabee said, it's vital that conservative Texans vote for him and not another candidate pre-ordained the Republican nominee by political pundits or the national media.

"They've decided it's a done deal. They've decided that as Republicans in Texas, your votes don't even matter," Mr. Huckabee said. "It ain't over until Texas says it's over. If we win Texas, it all changes."

Texans should say to themselves, "I'm going to vote because a candidate represents my views, my convictions, my principles," he added.

In addition to Mr. McCain, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, Texas, remains in the GOP race, running a distant third. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney dropped out earlier this month and has since endorsed Mr. McCain.

Regardless, Mr. Huckabee has maintained that he believes he'll win Texas, which would significantly boost his Republican National Convention delegate totals. Mr. McCain has 957 delegates; and Mr. Huckabee has 256; 1,191 delegates are needed to clinch the GOP nomination.

The nation's South and Midwest has been kind to Mr. Huckabee, who's won primaries or caucuses in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Tennessee and West Virginia. But his last victory came Feb. 9, with Mr. McCain winning several since.