She claims LGBTQ+ rights need to be restricted to "protect kids," but she appointed a man who admitted to having sex with a minor to a high-level position...
Do not take this as an endorsement of his behavior because it’s still repulsive, but the reason why it wasn’t referred to as “statutory rape” is because it isn’t. “Had sex with a minor” is the most accurate and sufficiently accusatory phrase they could use. If he and the minor were from Arkansas where the age of consent is 16, then apart from being morally wrong, it’s not illegal.
Huckabee doesn't care about the safety of kids or the evils of non-straight sex. She cares about the transnational white power movement (and / or the Christian nationalist movement. There's a lot of intersection.) If you're a member of the movement, then, from Huckabee's position, you deserve protection and promotion no matter what wrongdoing you might have committed. And if you're outside the movement, you deserve condemnation and persecution even if you've done no wrong.