Former WH press secretary Sarah Sanders says 'I've been called' to run for office

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the New York Times that she feels "called" to run for office amid speculation that she will pursue a gubernatorial run in Arkansas in 2022.

Sanders, who left the White House in June on good terms with President Donald Trump, has since moved to Little Rock where she is building on her already established political reputation in the state while working as a Fox News contributor and writing a book.

Annie Karni of the Times wrote:

"There are two types of people who run for office," Ms. Sanders said over breakfast tacos at a diner in downtown Little Rock last week. "People that are called and people that just want to be a senator or governor. I feel like I've been called."

She did not make it clear who did the calling — potential voters or even a higher power. As the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who served as governor from 1996 to 2007 and twice ran for president, she is seen as political royalty in Arkansas, and Mr. Trump himself urged her to run for governor when she left the West Wing.

"It's the role I've been pushed into," she said. "I wouldn't want to do that if I wasn't the right person to fit what the state needed at that time."

Sanders may have some competition for the Republican nomination, with Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also viewed as likely candidates.

Sanders' husband, Brian, said they will need to decide on a run by Labor Day 2021.

President Donald Trump won Arkansas by 27 points in 2016. The combination of her close relationship with the president and her father's legacy as the state's governor from 1996 through 2007 makes her a formidable presence should she decide to enter Arkansas politics.

"She has a unique coalition. It's not just Trump voters. It's evangelicals because of her dad. It's women," Brian Sanders said.