Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces bid for Arkansas governor

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders formally launched her 2022 campaign for Arkansas governor on Monday, releasing a roughly eight-minute video that leaned heavily on her tenure as former President Donald Trump’s top spokesperson.

The 38-year-old Republican political operative, whose father is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was expected to enter the race this week. If Sanders continues to tether her candidacy to the former president, her fate in the GOP gubernatorial primary could serve as one of the first real tests of Trump’s staying power in Republican politics in the aftermath of his four years in office.

In her announcement video, Sanders claimed to have “been tested under fire, successfully managing one crisis after another” in what she described as “one of the most difficult, high-pressure jobs in all of government.” As White House press secretary, “I took on the media, the radical left and their cancel culture, and I won,” she said.

Sanders, who has never held elected office, emphasized the need for “a new generation of leadership” in Little Rock and called for “law and order” to counter the “radical left’s solution” of imposed “government control and censorship from the top down.”

She also condemned the “violence in our streets, at a congressional baseball practice and at our Capitol” — apparently equating the 2017 attack on Republican lawmakers by a former volunteer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign with this month’s deadly siege of the nation’s seat of government by pro-Trump rioters.

“Everything we love about America is at stake, and with the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense,” Sanders said. “In fact, your governor must be on the front line. So today, I announce my candidacy for governor of Arkansas and ask for your prayers and your support.”

Trump issued an endorsement for Sanders on Monday evening, saying in an email statement: “Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a warrior who will always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct. Sarah is strong on Borders, tough on Crime, and fully supports the Second Amendment and our great law enforcement officers.“

“She loves our Military and Veterans — and her home state of Arkansas. Sarah will be a GREAT Governor, and she has my Complete and Total Endorsement!“ he said.

Sanders is running to replace the term-limited Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and she joins a GOP primary field that consists of at least two high-profile state officials: Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.

Just hours after entering the race, Sanders came under attack from Griffin, who criticized her campaign video pledge to “prohibit sanctuary cities and cut off funding for cities that deliberately violate immigration laws.”

In a statement to POLITICO, Griffin noted that Hutchinson in 2019 had already signed into law a measure cutting off state funding to so-called “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities.

“We all value Sarah Sanders’ political work in Washington and appreciate her. I welcome her to the race for Governor, and am glad that she’s back in Little Rock,” Griffin said. “Her pledge to ban sanctuary cities would have been a great line in a speech in 2019, but not in 2021. It sounds like she needs to catch up on what’s been going on in Arkansas.”

It was long anticipated that Sanders would mount a gubernatorial run following her exit from the White House in June 2019, and Trump has repeatedly praised her potential candidacy. Announcing her departure as his press secretary, the former president tweeted: “I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas — she would be fantastic.”

At the time of her resignation, POLITICO reported that Sanders was “extremely serious” about running for governor, and she has made several moves since leaving the White House fueling speculation about a coming campaign.

In July 2019, Sanders appeared at an exclusive Republican Governors Association-hosted retreat, and in August 2019, she unveiled a sleek personal website. She also published a White House memoir last fall and had been a Fox News contributor from September 2019 until Sunday, when her agreement with the network was terminated, according to a Fox News spokesperson.

Daniel Lippman and Matthew Choi contributed to this report.