Three Republicans will make their announcements to seek the GOP presidential nomination this week.  Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina announced on Sunday and Monday respectively, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will jump in the race tomorrow.

They will join Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio as declared candidates.

New York Times:

For the Republican Party, the presidential candidates keep coming.

The next wave arrives this week, with Carly Fiorina announcing her long-shot bid for the Republican nomination Monday morning and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas set to announce his own on Tuesday. Ben Carson announced his bid on Sunday night. They will join Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul in the race.

Ms. Fiorina started things off low-key on Monday with an announcement, which is to be followed by a call with reporters and a virtual town-hall-style meeting. Later in the week, she will head to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.A former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Ms. Fiorina is the second woman to make a run for the White House in this election cycle, following Hillary Rodham Clinton’s announcement last month. Ms. Fiorina brings strong business acumen and a promise to be a more compassionate version of Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. And she has suggested that she is the perfect antidote to Mrs. Clinton, who many believe has an easy path to the Democratic nomination.

[...]

What Mr. Carson lacks in political experience he makes up for in brainpower. Raised in Detroit by a single mother, he went on to graduate from Yale and the University of Michigan Medical School and became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. His skill at separating conjoined twins made him a medical folk hero.

Mr. Carson gained attention in political circles in 2013 after he was invited to give an address at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington and warned that America was headed down the path of ancient Rome. With President Obama seated a few feet away, Mr. Carson, who is black, called the Affordable Care Act “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” For conservatives, a star was born.

The week will also bring the return of an old political star. On Tuesday, Mr. Huckabee will gather supporters at Hempstead Hall in his hometown, Hope, Ark., to announce that he is planning to make another White House bid.

Popular with evangelical Christians, Mr. Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and remains one of the party’s stronger campaigners. 

By this time next month, the GOP could have 13 declared candidates for the presidency.  Matt Lewis, writing in the Telegraph, thinks this is a great thing because it shows the diversity of personalities and thought in the Republican Party:

To begin, the diversity of this nascent field is worth noting: Of the six Republican candidates that will likely be in the race by the end of the week, only two of them (Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee) are white males. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are Hispanic, Carly Fiorina is obviously a woman, and Dr. Ben Carson is black.

Fiorina has already displayed an ability - and eagerness - attack Hillary Clinton in an aggressive manner that might not work, were she an old white man. Fiorina’s very presence also helps blunt the perception that this election will be some sort of a proxy battle of the sexes. “Because I am a woman, there are many things [Hillary Clinton] can’t say,” Fiorina explained to Fox News recently. “She can’t play the gender card. She can’t talk about being the first woman president. She can’t talk about the war on women.” Putting aside identity politics, these candidates also bring interesting and varied talents and biographies to the campaign. Two of them - Fiorina and Carson - are more or less political neophytes, but offer a different kind of experience. As a former corporate executive, Fiorina knows what it’s like to have to make payroll and meet budgets. But her checkered tenure at Hewlett-Packard, and her unceremonious departure in 2005, will make it hard for her to fully capitalize on her business experience.

Dr. Carson’s story is even more interesting. Raised by a poor single mom in Detroit, Michigan, he went on to become one of the most famous and admired pediatric neurosurgeons in America. Carson is so acclaimed that Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr portrayed him in the 2009 movie, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. His political star began to rise after his 2013 speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he decried political correctness, and strayed from talking about faith to topics ranging from health care policy to the national debt.

Matt thinks Huckabee is the only one of the three who could upend the 2016 nomination race.  As was true in 2008, when Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, the candidate doesn't need gobs of money or media.  His network of evangelical pastors and church communities brought him the victory last time he ran, and there's no reason to believe he can't do it again.

Plus, Huckabee may have broadened his appeal following his stint as a Fox News host for the past couple of years.  He's folksy, entertaining, charming, and a deadly debater.  With two or three establishment candidates who will be fighting for cash and votes, Huckabee has a real opportunity to sneak in and really upset the applecart in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Republican candidates will agree on some basic principles, but there will be wide disagreement on everything from foreign policy to trade and immigration.  Will this diversity cause the American voter to pay more attention to the Republican Party this cycle?  Unless Hillary Clinton gets a genuine opponent, that scenario becomes more likely all the time.