Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cruised to victory in the Arkansas GOP gubernatorial primary race on Tuesday. Sanders has secured around 83% of the vote with 98% of precincts reporting as of Wednesday morning.
Sanders defeated former talk radio host and podcaster Doc Washburn, who mounted a long shot bid for the GOP nomination in the primary. Chris Jones, a nuclear engineer and ordained minister, has secured the nomination from the Democrats and will be facing Huckabee Sanders in November.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders secured the nomination of her former boss, Donald Trump, and focused her campaign largely on national issues. Sanders, the daughter of former Governor Mike Huckabee, has hit Biden for inflation and lockdown-related economic fallout.
“I think paying attention to the bad policies and the failures of the Biden administration and the impact that they have on our state is critically important,” she said Tuesday morning. “If they continue to fail the way that they have and they continue to, I think, put states in a difficult position, then absolutely, we’re going to call them out and we’re going to continue to talk about that.”
The candidates are running to succeed Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has termed out. Hutchinson — who vetoed a bill that would prevent the chemical castration of children — has hinted at a possible presidential run in 2024.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has long been involved in Arkansas politics. She previously managed Senator John Boozman’s 2010 campaign and worked as an adviser to Senator Tom Cotton’s election bid in 2014.
She is currently the favorite to win the reliably red state in November.