Less than six months after leaving the White House, former press secretary Sarah Sanders is planning her next move — and that move might just be a political run in her home state of Arkansas.
“There are two types of people who run for office,” Sanders told the New York Times. “People that are called and people that just want to be a senator or governor. I feel like I’ve been called.”
If she does run for office, it will likely be as a gubernatorial candidate in 2022. President Trump has been encouraging Sanders to launch her bid for the past few months, and given her family’s history in the state, Sanders would likely be an easy shoo-in.
The Beltway’s many political pundits would like to think otherwise, pointing to her contentious tenure at the White House.
Sarah Sanders was a liar. https://t.co/f6u5DYMObr
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) November 25, 2019
Sarah Sanders also lied about why the White House took away @Acosta’s press credentials and tweeted out a doctored video to try to back up the lie, but a federal judge rejected her attempt to rewrite the facts. https://t.co/0rID434LNo
— Ted Boutrous (@BoutrousTed) November 25, 2019
“The main thing I like about her is her honesty” – one Arkansas voter tells the Times, about Sarah Sanders. Meanwhile, the Times itself refuses to call her dishonest and just quotes David Axelrod calling her dishonest.
Kill me now. #mediafail https://t.co/QRMay6GgOU
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 24, 2019
It is true that Sanders often dodged questions and repeated blatant falsehoods to shield the White House from criticism. (Jay Carney, one of President Barack Obama’s press secretaries, had a similar habit). But none of this will matter in Arkansas, where most people view Sanders as political royalty and trust her more than any member of the mainstream media.
“The main thing I like about her is her honesty,” Carla Shelton, an Arkansas resident and small-business owner, told the Times. “She got a bad rap because people are offended that she does tell the truth. I’m 100% behind her.”
Shelton likely represents a large share of Arkansas voters, many of whom would be happy to see a Trump-endorsed candidate return to the governor’s mansion. Sanders knows this, and it’s why she continues to insist during her Fox News appearances that she’s carrying a message from “real America” — the America that doesn’t care what blue check marks on Twitter think; the America that values loyalty more than honesty, perhaps to a fault.
The media’s pundits think they can back Sanders into a corner by relitigating her time in the White House, but it’s nothing more than noise bouncing around the Beltway’s echo chamber. Arkansas voters will support and defend their own, and Sanders is certainly that.
