Former Trump spokeswoman Sanders announces she’s running for Arkansas governor

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former chief spokeswoman for President Trump, announced that she’s running for governor of Arkansas, at a time when other Republicans are distancing themselves from the former president, who is facing an impeachment charge that he incited the deadly siege Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

But the former White House press secretary, who left the job in 2019 to return to her home state, ran the other direction with an announcement Monday that embraced Trump.

“With the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense,” Sanders said in a nearly eight-minute video announcing her 2022 bid that prominently featured pictures of the former president, as well as some of his favorite targets.

Trump, who publicly encouraged Sanders to run, wasted no time putting his seal of approval on her bid Monday night. In his first official, public endorsement since leaving office, he backed Sanders’ candidacy and called her a “warrior who will always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct.”

The daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sanders is the most high-profile Trump official to seek major office and is doing so less than a week after the tumultuous end of his presidency. Her candidacy could showcase just how much of a hold Trump still has on the GOP.

“Trump is simply not a liability here,” said Janine Parry, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas. “At least for the time being, we’re in a state where he remains an asset.”

That’s even as the Senate is preparing for an impeachment trial over the insurrection by Trump supporters that was aimed at halting the certification of President Biden’s victory.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky rebuked Trump last week, saying he “provoked” the siege. Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters days before Biden’s inauguration that he wanted Trump’s administration to end, though he opposed the impeachment.

Sanders’ announcement makes a brief reference to the Capitol siege that left five dead, equating it with violence that occurred at some protests over racial injustice last year and the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice that injured Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and four others.

“This is not who we are as Americans,” Sanders said in the video, without mentioning Trump’s role in encouraging his supporters who stormed the Capitol.

She joins a Republican primary that already includes two statewide elected leaders, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and Atty. Gen. Leslie Rutledge. The three are running to succeed Hutchinson, who is unable to run next year due to term limits. No Democrats have announced a bid to run for the seat.

Griffin and Rutledge spent months positioning themselves ahead of Sanders’ entry by lining up endorsements, raising money and trying to stake their claims as the most conservative candidate. Griffin has called for the outright elimination of the state’s income tax, while Rutledge signed on to Texas’ ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the result of the presidential election.

Griffin and Rutledge issued statements condemning the storming of the Capitol but not addressing Trump’s role. Combined, the two have raised more than $2.8 million for the race.

Griffin on Monday criticized Sanders for promising in her video to cut off funding to so-called sanctuary cities that violate immigration laws. He noted that a 2019 measure Hutchinson signed into law already does just that by cutting off funding to cities that don’t cooperate with immigration authorities.

“It sounds like she needs to catch up on what’s been going on in Arkansas,” Griffin said in a statement.

Rutledge, meanwhile, said in a statement that the race is about “who has a proven record and not merely rhetoric.”

The race could get even more crowded. Republican State Sen. Jim Hendren, Hutchinson’s nephew, is considering a run for the seat and said he hoped to make a decision within three weeks.

“Right now we have three announced candidates, but they all do represent the far right part of the Republican Party,” said Hendren, who has been much more willing to criticize Trump and hasn’t ruled out an independent bid. “The question I have to decide is, is there room for a more pragmatic, centrist type of approach?”

Sanders is well known in Arkansas politics, going back to when she appeared in ads for her father’s campaign. She managed Sen. John Boozman’s 2010 election and worked as an advisor to Sen. Tom Cotton’s in 2014.

During Sanders’ nearly two-year tenure at the White House, daily televised briefings led by the press secretary ended after she repeatedly sparred with reporters who aggressively questioned her. She faced questions about her credibility but earned reporters’ respect working behind the scenes to develop relationships with the media.

She remains an unknown on many issues and wasn’t made available for interviews Monday, though she staked out some positions in her introductory video that include reducing the state’s income tax.

Her introductory video indicates that she’s leaning on her time with Trump; it calls out those who frequently drew his ire, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and CNN.

Republicans have a firm grip on Arkansas, holding all statewide and federal seats. They also hold a majority in both chambers of the Legislature. Trump in November won the state by nearly 28 percentage points.

State Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray on Monday called the GOP primary a “race to the bottom.” But national party leaders indicated that Sanders’ candidacy may draw more resources and attention to a long-shot race that will coincide with 2022 congressional midterm elections.

“As we close the book on a dark chapter in our history, we must make sure Trump’s brand of politics stays in the past,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison tweeted. “Now, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running on his record.”

Hutchinson, who has remained generally popular since taking office in 2015, said he didn’t plan on endorsing anyone at this time in the race.

“I am a voter, so I will follow the campaign with interest, but I have a job to do for the next two years, and I will devote my energies to bring Arkansas out of the pandemic and to revitalize our economy,” he said in a statement.

DeMillo writes for the Associated Press.