campaign owes $69,211 on credit card.

WASHINGTON — With donations dropping, the presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee used its American Express account to help stay afloat through the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

As of Feb. 29, Mike Huckabee for President Inc. had credit card bills totaling $69,211.35, according to paperwork filed March 20 with the Federal Election Commission.

With nearly all of the bills paid, it’s the biggest debt listed on the monthly report from a campaign that raised and spent roughly $4.2 million.

Huckabee for President also owes two Texas companies for air travel: $15,344.44 to MSCO Management in Fort Worth and $6,065.24 to Skycraft Management in Cleburne.

Huckabee suspended his presidential campaign Feb. 1, a couple of hours after finishing ninth in the Iowa caucuses.

Though listing $90,621.03 in total debts, the campaign also reported having $74,493.28 in cash on hand at the end of February, a difference of $16,127.75.

Those figures are evolving, however, as things wind down, according to campaign manager Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“The campaign is still receiving new invoices that will be added to the debt, and we don’t have [a] final total. I got a new invoice just this morning,” she said in a text message Monday. Despite Huckabee’s loss, donations continue to trickle in.

Huckabee for President received $50,687.75 in contributions during February. It reported $5,583.27 in other offsets last month, including $4,000 it received for selling its office furniture.

Overall, the campaign spent $145,578.70 and refunded $5,279 in donations last month.

In addition to the debts listed on the FEC forms, Huckabee has been soliciting funds for other campaign-related matters.

In a Feb. 19 fundraising appeal, titled “Help Me Honor Their Sacrifice,” Huckabee wrote: “Some of our staff went without pay in the final 2 months to keep us in the game. Few candidates have that level of devotion among the staff. I feel that it’s important to honor their sacrifice by trying to make them whole for their weeks worked without pay.”

To finish the campaign in the black and pay off late-arriving bills, Huckabee said in the appeal that he’d need to raise about $90,000.

“It’s embarrassing to even ask you to help yet again, but I don’t want to let these good people go without pay and bills not paid. So that is why I am asking for your help,” he wrote.

The campaign has not said exactly how much money it owes its staff members, but Sanders said in February that five or six people had gone without pay, “mostly all senior staff.”

Sanders said “hard bills” such as the American Express debt must be paid before the staff members are rewarded.