She seemed to invite confrontation with the media and the public when she worked in Washington. But she quit her job, moved back to Arkansas and announced her candidacy for governor more than a year-and-a-half ago.
She has political experience, for sure. She worked on her father’s unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1992 and deserves a ribbon for coordinating his election to governor four years later. She then became national director for Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign, and again in 2016 before Mike quit.
She worked for George W. Bush and Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton. She became a senior adviser for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and suited up to be his press secretary after Sean Spicer (who nodded “Yes!” when Kellyanne Conway referred to his untruthiness as “alternative facts”) quit and went on Dancing with the Stars.
She referred to herself as an honest person. Fine. But being ethically murky is not unknown in politics, and the only reason to say you’re honest is because you’re not.
This woman with a decent political pedigree is running for governor of Arkansas as a Republican. By July a year ago, she had raised more than $9 million, a record for anyone ever running for governor of Arkansas.
Then there’s her opponent, political newbie Chris Jones, whose family has lived in Arkansas for more than 200 years.
Chris is a nuclear engineer and has a Ph.D. from MIT in Urban Planning. He has devoted his life to making life easier for those who have it harder. He said people should not have to choose between buying groceries (to keep them alive) or paying for medication (to keep them alive.) Chris will walk a mile with you, not just say he will.
Both candidates to be our governor are married with three children. Both are Christian. Chris supports Roe v. Wade and said that abortion is a healthcare matter that should be left to those who are personally affected.
Sarah says she will see to it that kids are “as safe in the womb as they are in the classroom.” She’s anti-abortion, no exceptions, and anti-gun control. Those two planks have a lot of support in Arkansas. And nearly every place else.
Both candidates were born in Arkansas. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was born in Hope, the same Hempstead County town that gave us Hillary’s husband. Chris Jones was born in Pine Bluff.
Neither of these candidates is eighty, seventy, sixty or fifty. One is 45, the other 39.
Electing Sarah Sanders would make her the first woman governor of this state. Electing Chris Jones would make him the first Arkansas Chief of State who is Black – unless you count Bill Clinton who was later referred to as our first Black president. He took that as the highest of compliments.
Or unless you include Josiah Homer Blount, a qualified Republican who wanted to be governor but was denied the nomination when the segregated Marion Hotel in Little Rock wouldn’t allow him to attend the 1920 Republican Convention.
Nevertheless, gender, color, age and religion should have nothing to do with an election.
Ours is not to determine policy with our vote. We can hope to, but whoever wins this horserace will have plenty of monied special interest individuals vying for their time and blessing. Our job as voters is to choose the candidate who will listen to us, not dismiss us. The one we would trust with our lives.
We will be electing a governor who commands our national guard, manages state agencies, appoints judges, grants clemencies and goes to lots of meetings. It’s a job, a good job, a fulltime job.
This job is limited to eight years, assuming one wins twice. Once they get good and seasoned at the job, they’re thanked for their service and given their walking papers. That’s the way it should be. For those with further aspirations, 19 former U.S. governors have become president.
Arkansas is not exactly a swingish state, but it did swing from Democratic to Republican, after 92 years, when Winthrop Rockefeller was elected governor in 1966.
So, anything could happen. And voters are the only ones who can make it happen