Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was born in 1982 in Hope, Arkansas; her father is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and she grew up in Pine Bluff and Texarkana, Arkansas.⁠[1][2]

She graduated from Little Rock Central High School and earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Ouachita Baptist University in 2004.⁠[2][1]

She was a field coordinator for her father’s 2002 gubernatorial re-election campaign and Ohio field director for George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, and she served in the Department of Education under Bush.⁠[1][2]

She was national political director of her father’s 2007–2008 presidential campaign, which won the Iowa caucuses and seven other states.⁠[2]

In 2010 she managed John Boozman’s successful U.S. Senate campaign, and in 2014 she was a senior adviser to Tom Cotton’s Senate campaign; she was a consultant at Tsamoutales Strategies from 2011 to 2015 and founded Second Street Strategies in February 2016.⁠[2][1]

From February 2016 through the November general election she was a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.⁠[2]

Sanders was deputy White House press secretary in the Trump administration from January to July 2017 and White House press secretary from July 2017 to June 2019, the third woman and the first mother to hold the post.⁠[1][2]

She later became a FOX NewsFOX NewsFOX News is a U.S. television and digital news media brand centered on FOX News Channel and owned by Fox Corporation, with operations spanning news reporting, political commentary and digital content.Open the full entry contributor and served on the Fulbright board; she is the author of the New York Times bestseller Speaking for Myself.⁠[2]

In the 2022 gubernatorial election Sanders won with 571,105 votes (63.0%), defeating Democrat Chris Jones (319,242 votes, 35.2%) and Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. (16,690 votes, 1.8%).⁠[1]

On January 10, 2023, she was inaugurated as the 47th governor of Arkansas, the state’s first woman governor; within her first 100 days she delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.⁠[2][1]

On March 8, 2023, Sanders signed the 145-page LEARNS Act, which raised the minimum teacher salary to $50,000, created “education freedom accounts” giving families access to state per-pupil foundation funding for non-public schooling, and phased in school choice.⁠[3]

The law also holds back third graders who are not proficient in reading, with exceptions, while adding 120 literacy coaches and $500 tutoring grants for struggling students.⁠[3]

The bill passed the House 78–21 and the Senate 26–8. Sanders called it “the largest overhaul of our state’s education system in Arkansas history.”⁠[3]

On November 3, 2025, Sanders filed for the 2026 gubernatorial election with the Republican Party of Arkansas and the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office; her campaign had $5.5 million cash on hand at the end of September 2025. The previous day Donald Trump announced his endorsement of her re-election on Truth Social.⁠[4]

She said she would “continue to work each day to take Arkansas to the top.”⁠[4]

The Republican gubernatorial primary of March 3, 2026, was canceled because she was unopposed, and Sanders advanced to the general election; at that time her campaign had more than $4.1 million in funds.⁠[1][5]

In the gubernatorial election on November 3, 2026, Sanders faced Democrat Fredrick LoveFredrick LoveFredrick Love is an American Democratic politician who served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2011 to 2022 and has been an Arkansas state senator since 2023. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2026 Arkansas gubernatorial election.Open the full entry and Libertarian Colt Shelby; the Associated Press called the race for her at about 9:43 p.m. that night.⁠[6][1]

Other initiatives listed in her official biography include investment in prison space and measures targeting repeat offenders, tax cuts, the Natural State Initiative to grow the state’s outdoor economy, and reforms to streamline state government.⁠[2]

Office of the Arkansas Governor: Official website: https://governor.arkansas.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]