Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for governor of Arkansas in the 2022 election, CBS News has confirmed. A source familiar with her plans said she will make the announcement Monday.
The current Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, is unable to run again due to deadlines.
Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, became a household name while working as part of the Trump White House communications team. She initially served as the Deputy White House press secretary before taking over the position of press secretary after Sean Spicer stepped down. Publicly known for her hostile relationship with the press, she had a good relationship with many reporters in private.
When she left the administration in June 2019, she had not delivered a press briefing for over 100 days. She tweeted the moment she left with ‘head held high’.
Sanders was press secretary for two years. Her successor, Stephanie Grisham, left after 10 months without holding a single press briefing. Sanders, one of Trump’s original White House staffers, called works for Mr. Trump the “chance of a lifetime.”
Her bid for governor was widely anticipated – Mr Trump tweeted as she left the news agency that he hoped she would flee.
“After 3 1/2 years, our amazing Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and heading home to the Great State of Arkansas,” Trump wrote on his now-deleted Twitter account in June 2019. . “She is a very special person with extraordinary talent, who has done a great job! I hope she decides to run for the governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!”
Sanders was a favorite adviser to Mr. Trump, and she was a frequent guest at his rallies during the campaign, even after she left the White House.
Since Sanders left the White House, she has published a bestseller entitled “ Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom and the Fight for Our Lives Inside the Trump White House, ” detailing her time as the first working mother in the White House press. was described. secretary.
“As a working mother, I have not lost what a great honor and privilege it is to be on the podium here,” she said memorable at a briefing.
Sanders also compared her time as press secretary as caught between a “furious battle between the president and the media.”
“I often had the feeling that I was on the front line in no man’s land,” wrote Sander.
Sanders will jump into a Republican primary race that already includes two state-elected officials: Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.