Saturday Night Live Has It's Fingers Crossed, But Does Arkansas Deserve Governor Sarah Huckabee?

Most Americans see Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a professional liar. She’s a regular Saturday Night Live character always sure to earn some laughs. But if her native state of Arkansas, people see her not as a pathetic liar and a walking joke, but as their next governor. When Trumpanzee accepted her resignation, he suggested she run for governor or one of the poorest and least educated states in the country. The daughter of governor, she was already looking into that by then.

Today CBS News reported that her team had already polled the state and found it a slam dunk— both in the GOP primary and in the general election. Remember, Arkansas is now one of the reddest states in the union. Trump beat the state’s former First Lady in 2016, 684,872 (60.5%) to 380,494 (33.6%) Hillary won only 8 of the state’s 75 counties. The PVI is R+15, even worse than Alabama and Tennessee. Once of the bluest states in the Union, only Republicans get elected there now and the Democratic Party is moribund and withered. Of the 35 state senators, just 9 are Democrats and the House is now 76 Republican to 24 Democrats. The state’s entire delegation to Washington is also Republican.

CBS News reported that “The results of the poll, conducted several weeks ago, showed Sanders ‘crushing’ any potential Republican rivals, including current Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin who has been eyeing a run, according to sources. Those close to Sanders confirm she is ‘seriously considering’ a run for political office, and specifically the governor's seat after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's term ends. However, Sanders is adamant she will not make a final decision on whether to run for the seat that her father Mike Huckabee once for at least two years. The next gubernatorial race will be in 2022… If Sanders does decide to run for governor in 2022, she would have the support of President Trump and a network of formidable supporters waiting in the wings.” By then Trump is likely to be out of the White House and likely to be dealing with legal problems.

"Huckabee is still a magic name in Arkansas," said Rollins, who was President Ronald Reagan's campaign manager in the 1984 election and is currently co-chairman of the pro-Trump Great America PAC. "If she wants to run she will be tough to beat."

"She has 100% name ID, the strong backing of the president and deep ties back home," Raj Shah, Sanders' former principal deputy press secretary, told CBS News. "She would be an instant frontrunner the moment she jumped into the race."

"And having worked alongside her, I've seen her unique ability to connect and carry a message. Sarah would be very hard to beat," he added.

Leading up to Sanders' decision to leave the White House, the president had been asking Sanders whether she was going to run for governor, and had even playfully started calling her "governor."

Griffin, the current lieutenant governor and a likely 2022 gubernatorial candidate, has been angrily calling contacts in Washington and Arkansas, fuming over Sander's possible entrance into the race, according to sources who have received his calls.

"There are probably a number of Democrats who would love to step up and challenge Sarah Huckabee Sanders if she was going to be the nominee," state Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray told the Associated Press.

Sanders last day at the White House will be at the end of June. The very next day,  she and her young family will return home to Arkansas.