Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for governor of Arkansas in the 2022 election. A series of news outlets confirmed the announcement Monday outlining the former White House press secretary’s political future, as did the candidate herself through a video message.
As CBS News reports, the current Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, cannot run again due to term limits which leaves the door open for Sanders.
In a video message posted to her campaign website, Sanders pointed to her work in the Trump administration as a template for her future in a direct appeal to voters in the deeply red state.
“To remain free, we must have law and order and resolve our differences peacefully,” Sanders said. “The radical left’s solution is to impose government control and censorship from the top down.”
Sanders served as press secretary in the Donald Trump administration for two years, announcing her departure in June, 2019, as Breitbart News reported.
A member of the 2016 Trump campaign, Sanders entered the White House as a deputy press secretary before taking the top job in July 2017 after Sean Spicer resigned.
Before her departure, Trump hinted he wanted her to run for governor of Arkansas.
“If we can get her to run for the governor of Arkansas, I think she’ll do very well,” he said. “And I’m trying to get her to do that.”
Now that wish looks likely to come to fruition.
In her declaration to run, Sanders listed Trump’s achievements as her inspiration and pledged to mirror his agenda if elected to the state’s top executive office.
“My opponents will do everything in their power to destroy me,” Sanders said. “But I will not apologize for who I am or who I am fighting for … I will not bow down to the radical left. Not now. Not ever.”