Sarah Huckabee Sanders Elected First Female Governor Of Arkansas

By Hunter Field, Arkansas Advocate

November 8, 2022

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary, was elected Arkansas governor on Tuesday.

Sanders, whose father served as Arkansas governor from 1996-2007, is the first woman elected to lead the state.

The Little Rock Republican defeated Democrat Chris Jones and Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. in a race that she was heavily favored to win from the start.

She enjoyed the backing of her former boss, former President Donald J. Trump.

She’ll succeed term-limited Gov. Asa Hutchinson, marking the first time that Republicans have been elected back-to-back to Arkansas’ top elected office since Reconstruction.

Sanders’ campaign broke numerous fundraising and spending records, and she campaigned on fighting the “radical left.”

She offered a handful of policy priorities, namely public safety and primary education, but the governor’s race lacked the detailed policy proposals of past gubernatorial campaigns.

Sanders mostly avoided the traditional news media during her campaign, and she took a brief break from the campaign trail in September to undergo treatment for thyroid cancer, which her doctor said in a statement had been eradicated.

She will take office in January.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy. This service is free to readers and other news outlets.