Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is expected to announce a candidacy for the Arkansas governor on Monday, according to two people familiar with her plans.
Sanders has been considering launching a campaign since he left office in 2019 and quietly planned the bidding last year. Current Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson cannot seek re-election in 2022 because of term limits.
Sanders, whose father, Mike Huckabee, was governor of the state from 1996 to 2007, is expected to launch his candidacy on Monday.
Sanders took over from Sean Spicer, who resigned in 2017. Loyal ally of former President Donald Trump, she had a contentious relationship with the White House press and virtually eliminated official briefings during her 2 1 / 2- term one year.
When Trump announced that Sanders would step down in June 2019, she had not held a meeting in 94 days.
Sanders was attacked weeks earlier, when the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election by special council Robert Mueller revealed that she made a statement about the dismissal of former FBI director James Comey.
The day after Comey’s resignation in 2017, Sanders said during a news conference that “countless” FBI agents told the White House that they had lost confidence in Comey. But, according to Mueller’s report, she told federal investigators that she had no evidence to support the claim.
Sanders described the false statement as a “slip of the tongue”.
