Yahoo Finance Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wins GOP Nomination For Arkansas Governor
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is projected to win Arkansas’ Republican gubernatorial primary, putting another close ally of former President Donald Trump within a stone’s throw of a governor’s mansion.
Sanders will face Democrat Chris Jones, who is projected to win his own primary, in November.
Sanders, a former White House press secretary for Trump who was regularly criticized for her lies and obfuscation behind the podium, announced her bid in January 2021.
“I’ve been tested under fire, successfully managing one crisis after another, in one of the most difficult, high-pressure jobs in all of government,” she said at the time. “With the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense.”
If she wins in November, Sanders will follow in the footsteps of her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who served in Little Rock from 1996 to 2007.
“I love the people here, and I think that we can do things that help improve the lives of every Arkansan,” Sanders told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette this month.
Sanders has spent the past months campaigning against the threat of Democratic “indoctrination” and “critical race theory” in schools ― conservative dog whistles that have driven the recent wave of book bans, restrictions on teaching U.S. history, and anti-LGBTQ bills like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Our public schools should never indoctrinate our kids with the lie that America is a racist and evil country. Critical Race Theory pushes a radical left agenda that will further tear us apart, not bring us together.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) July 8, 2021
Trump endorsed Sanders shortly after she announced her bid last year, and current Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) endorsed Sanders as his replacement in November, saying she had “earned” the nomination.
“The state of Arkansas will be in good hands with Sarah as Governor, and she has my full support,” he said at the time.
She enters the final stretch of the race with a substantial war chest after collecting more than $740,000 in contributions in April and the first half of May.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
