Everything To Know About The Arkansas Governor And Ex-Trump Spokesperson Before Her State Of The Union Response

Topline

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, bookending an active first month in office for the Trump Administration alumna.

Key Facts

Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence as then-President Donald Trump’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019, following stints in the White House press office and as a senior advisor for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

As press secretary, she had a contentious relationship with reporters and was repeatedly accused of lying to or misleading the press, including omitting that Trump had funneled $130,000 through his one-time attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about an affair she says she had with Trump.

Huckabee Sanders’ time as press secretary coincided with some of the Trump administration’s rockiest encounters with the press, including the brief revocation of CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials in 2018, a decision that was reversed by a judge.

She won the Arkansas governor’s race with Trump’s endorsement and 63% of the vote, making the 40-year-old the youngest governor currently in office nationwide and the first female governor of Arkansas.

Huckabee Sanders has spent the start of her term leaning into conservative bona fides, signing seven executive orders on her first day in office—including one banning critical race theory from being taught in public schools and another banning the term “Latinx” from being used in state documents.

Huckabee Sanders could also sign a new GOP-backed bill banning “adult-oriented performances” from public places, an apparent reaction to conservative complaints about drag performances—Huckabee Sanders indicated she would endorse an earlier version of the bill that more explicitly restricted drag performances, and her spokesperson defended its amended contents to the Washington Post.

News Peg

When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced her address last Thursday, Huckabee Sanders joined a club of ascendant politicians to deliver a response to the State of the Union, whose members include Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan before they became Speaker of the House. The announcement follows chatter from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman that Huckabee Sanders could be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential bid, though Huckabee Sanders stopped short of endorsing Trump when questioned. Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani will deliver the Republican response in Spanish, McCarthy also announced Thursday.

Key Background

Huckabee Sanders’ father is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who led the state for roughly 10 years ending in 2007 and launched presidential bids in 2008 and 2016. Running on a socially conservative platform, the elder Huckabee won Iowa’s Republican caucuses in 2008 before eventually dropping out, and bowed out of the 2016 race after failing to repeat his Iowa victory. Huckabee Sanders worked as national political director for her father’s 2008 presidential run before orchestrating two winning Senate campaigns by Arkansas Republicans–one as Sen. John Boozman’s campaign manager in 2010 and the other as senior advisor to Sen. Tom Cotton’s campaign in 2014. She was former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer’s top deputy before succeeding him after his resignation in July 2017.

Surprising Fact

Huckabee Sanders’ contested credibility when she was Trump’s top spokesperson fueled comedian Michelle Wolf’s infamous dig during the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner: “She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” Wolf’s routine, which the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi said “swerved from raunchy to downright nasty,” brought criticism from Republican officials and some journalists.

Tangent

Huckabee Sanders’ executive order banning critical race theory from public schools is part of a larger pushback by conservatives on the academic discipline, which is technically defined as an examination of systemic racism in American law and society. The order describes critical race theory as “segregationist” for treating a persons’ skin color as their defining characteristic. Her executive order eliminating “Latinx” from state documents cites a 2019 Pew Research Survey that found only 3% of surveyed Latino adults use “Latinx”; 76% of those surveyed had never heard of the term. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Division of Secondary Education announced January 27 it is reviewing a new Advanced Placement curriculum for African American studies following Huckabee Sanders’ ban on critical race theory. Florida rejected the course last month after claiming it “lacks an educational purpose,” but on Friday, the College Board announced changes to the curriculum. Some suggested the organization had caved to pressure from conservatives like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), but College Board CEO David Coleman told NPR the changes had been in the works since September 2022 and were set to come out during Black History Month.

What To Watch For

Arkansas Senate Bill 43, the proposed ban on “adult oriented performances,” was originally designed to restrict drag performances on public land, but the state House amended the bill to eliminate all explicit references to drag. The amendments have to be approved by the Senate before Huckabee Sanders can sign the bill. Drag events for children have faced attacks from conservatives in recent years, often tied to false claims that they sexualize children.

Further Reading

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas Will Deliver Republic Address to the Nation (speaker.gov)

On Day 1, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders targets critical race theory (WaPo)

Taking on drag shows, ‘Latinx’ and more, Ark. moves from rhetoric to action (WaPo)