After former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced her intent to run for governor
of Arkansas on January 25th, 2021 in the state's 2022 election, people weren't surprised. Many
outlets, like ABC News and Business Insider, called the former White House press secretary's
bid a de facto litmus test for former President Donald Trump's staying power within the Republican
party. Such outlets also wondered if Huckabee's ties to the former president will aid her
with regards to the GOP voter base.
It's not a theory without foundation — as NPR noted, Sanders' 2020 memoir, Speaking
for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House,
spoke highly of Trump, as well as her own role in his administration, both as a campaign
manager and as a White House aide.
Equally unsurprising was Trump's own response to Sanders' declaration of intent to run for
office, despite the fact that it marks one of the few times Trump himself has publicly
spoken on any given matter since ending his term as president in January 2021, paired
with his permanent suspension from almost every mainstream social media platform. So
what did Trump have to say on the matter? And how does it speak to how Trump feels about
Sanders in general?
Soon after Sarah Huckabee Sanders formally announced her decision to run for governor
in Arkansas in a nearly eight-minute video, a number of Republican politicians spoke in
favor of Sanders' decision to enter the race. Such politicians included including former
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sanders' father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee,
per The Hill. But perhaps Sanders' most ringing endorsement came from none other than former
President Donald Trump himself, who issued a statement via his own political action committee
to reify his support of his former aide's political ambitions. Trump said in his 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 will be a GREAT Governor, and
she has my Complete and Total Endorsement!"
Trump's words echoed sentiments Sanders wove throughout her own announcement, many of which
included her hard stances on issues like gun ownership and "freedom of speech." She also
used her speech to blast the Democratic party, members of the left, and mainstream media.
Sanders said at the time.
"I took on the media, the radical left and their 'cancel culture,' and I won. As governor,
I will be your voice, and never let them silence you."
As Sarah Huckabee Sanders' own words and her career history might suggest, the former campaign
manager and White House press secretary has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump for
years. Considering Sanders' own familial political legacy — she herself is the daughter of
Republican politician Mike Huckabee, who served as the governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007
— her conservative leanings seem almost hereditary. In that vein, so too does her
own allegiance to Trump, despite her decision to leave his administration in 2019 after
serving as press secretary for only two years.
Sanders' sentiments towards the former commander-in-chief have been almost codified due to those expressed
in her own memoir. In one passage, per NPR, she went as far as to say that she not only
"loved" her job as press secretary, but, quote, "loved the president and most of the people
I worked with."
As NPR pointed out, she used her memoir as an opportunity to also endorse Trump's 2020
(now failed) bid for re-election. But the nature of their mutual alliance was not only
apparent in Sanders' recent statement of gubernatorial intent, but Trump's endorsement as well.
In her January 2021 announcement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke broadly about her conservative
platform points for the 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial race, most of which adhered strongly to those
former President Donald Trump supported during his term in office. Among them included anti-immigration
stances — specifically barring the existence of sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants
and workers — within the state, as well as opposing policies favored by the Biden
administration, such as the Green New Deal, per ABC News.
Taking Sanders' cue regarding the conservative platform she outlined in her announcement
speech, Trump seemingly piggy-backed and superimposed the policy stances he oversaw during his first
term as commander-in-chief. The most notable example of this appeared to be Trump's opinion
that Sanders is "strong on Borders," possibly referencing his own large-scale project to
build a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border during his presidency. (While Sanders did
praise Trump's anti-immigration policies, she did not mention anything regarding a border
wall regarding Arkansas specifically, considering the state of Arkansas does not share a border
with Mexico.)
Whether or not this is the case, Sanders seemed to heed it no mind. After issuing his endorsement,
Sanders thanked the ex-president in a retweet, thanking him for "always believing" in her.
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