Less than five full days after the end of the Trump administration, its first alumnus will announce their run for political office. According to reports from the New York Times and Washington Post, former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will release a video on Monday declaring her intention to run for Arkansas governor in 2022.
The daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sanders has been considered a potential front-runner for her father’s old office since she resigned from the Trump administration in June 2019. While in the White House, Sanders was often at the front of the administration’s frequent misinformation and deflection campaigns, providing false information surrounding the Russia investigation and calling reports on Trump’s payments to Stormy Daniels “ridiculous” hours before Trump admitted to his knowledge of them. Less than two months after resigning from the White House, she joined Fox News as a contributor.
While the White House press secretary is not often used as a platform for higher office, it’s long been expected that Sanders would run to replace Republican Asa Hutchinson, who has been term-limited. In a tweet announcing her departure from the administration, Trump said he hopes “she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas — she would be fantastic.” In an interview in November 2019, Sanders anticipated the potential advantage ex-Trump staffers could have in the wake of his defeat. “If he loses, people will be angry and they will want to rally around Trump people.”
It’s a population that the state does not lack: Trump won Arkansas by almost 27 points in 2016 and almost 28 points in 2020.
