The politician chosen to deliver a partisan State of the Union response is seen as a rising star in the party. By electing Sanders, who at 40 is the youngest governor in the U.S., Republicans are signaling that his brand of confrontational cultural conservatism represents the future of their party — And a close relationship with Trump is not seen as a disadvantage even as the party has signaled. Willingness to go through with it
“I am grateful for this opportunity to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats,” Sanders said in a statement last week. “We are ready to begin a new chapter in America’s story – one written by a new generation of leaders who will defend our freedoms against the radical left and advance quality education, jobs and opportunity for all. Ready to expand access.”
As the new governor of a deep-red state that Trump won with 62 percent of the vote in 2020, Sanders started the culture wars on his first day by signing executive orders banning the term “Latinos” from state documents. do. A critical theory of race in schools, although there is no evidence that academic discipline was taught in Arkansas public schools.
Sanders, said the mother of three young children during her opening speech. “As long as I’m governor, our schools will focus on the skills our kids need to thrive in the modern world — not brainwashing our kids with a left-wing political agenda.”
Sanders follows in the footsteps of her father, Mike Huckabee, who was a staunch conservative long before the Trump era. When she announced her run for governor, she immediately touted her family name and her ties to Trump.
Trump publicly endorsed Sanders’ run for governor, and she remains an unapologetic ally of the former president, though she’s never fully embraced his baseless claims that the 2020 election is hers. were stolen. During the Republican gubernatorial primary in May 2022, Sanders suggested, without evidence, that cheating had occurred, but did not go so far as to say that it cost Trump the election.
We know that every election is rigged. How far it went, I don’t think that’s something that will ever be determined,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I think the country would be infinitely better off if Donald Trump were president right now, and I think we need to do whatever we can to get into the next election cycle to strengthen our election process and provide greater election integrity. Can also do. Should strive for.”
GOP congressional leaders framed Sanders’ address as a rallying cry for a new generation, pitting millennials against 80-year-old Biden.
“While President Biden continues to repeat old mistakes and fail Americans, a rising generation of Republican governors is fighting for families, pushing new solutions, and winning. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders Country is the youngest-ever governor and a powerful advocate for popular, common-sense conservative principles that will put our country on a better path,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement last week. I said. .
Last year, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott responded to Biden and before that, Nikki Haley, then South Carolina’s governor, rejected the GOP after President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address in 2016. of has signaled interest in running for president in 2024 against Trump, who has already declared himself a candidate.
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