It’s official – Arkansas might get another Governor Huckabee… Huckabee Sanders, that is.

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has formally announced that she intends to run for governor of Arkansas in 2022. The current governor, Asa Hutchinson, is a Republican, but will be term-limited out of office. So Sanders is putting her high-profile name into the race right now.

She officially announced her candidacy via Twitter. If she does become governor, she would be the first woman to hold the office in Arkansas.

I'm in —> https://t.co/8bmfl3ZPgp

Watch ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/khDPEk0orU

— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) January 25, 2021

The daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sanders would create something of an Arkansas political dynasty should she win. She was widely encouraged to run by former President Donald Trump since her White House departure in June 2019.”

“My dad always said the real test of a leader is not the way you handle the issues you know are coming, it’s rising to the moment in a crisis you could never plan for,” Sanders said in the video. “I’ve been tested under fire.”

For what it’s worth, her dad approves.

A truly remarkable lady just announced she's running for my old job. It comes with the same gov't housing she grew up in. Watch the video. Support her w/ prayer & contributions! GIddy up!https://t.co/S2uDUM9QFf

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 25, 2021

Now, this being Arkansas, the Republican field already has two other candidates that she will have to face in a primary. But Sarah Huckabee Sanders comes with instant name recognition in the state and a huge national profile. She enters the race with front-runner status nearly guaranteed, and has been considering running for governor ever since leaving the White House in 2019 – something that Donald Trump encouraged her to do at the time.

As far as being “tested under fire,” Sanders has definitely taken her share of slings and arrows for merely being President Trump’s press secretary. There was the pie dispute with April Ryan. There was the constant snarking on her appearance – something that is absolutely unacceptable to do to Democrat women, but when you have an “R” after your name, then it’s Mean Girls all the way. Sanders dealt with a whiny press room the way that a preschool teacher has to deal with a room full of cranky toddlers. There was the time she was asked to leave a restaurant because she worked for the Bad Orange Man.

Sanders’s announcement is going to be one of the first big media tests of this new Biden era of “unity.” After all, Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not bend the knee to the media elite. She worked for the Trump White House. She’s going to run for governor in Arkansas, and the last time the national media set foot in Arkansas was probably around the same time that Bill Clinton left the state. We all have heard about the proclamations of “punishment” for those who worked for Trump, loudly crowed about by AOC and the short-lived “Trump Accountability Project.” You know the press will begrudge Sanders any modicum of success as they measure it, and if she becomes governor of Arkansas, even though they would never go there, they will resent it.

Now, Sanders still has to get through the Republican primary and prove that she is the best choice for governor. But there is little doubt that she will make a strong case to the voters of Arkansas, and stands a good chance of annoying the life out of those who want former Trump officials to live in perpetual scorn for the rest of their lives. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has proved that she doesn’t listen to whiners and haters, and if she proves to be as formidable a candidate as she was a press secretary, then she stands an excellent chance of being the next governor of Arkansas.

Featured image: Wikimedia, Executive Office of the President of the United States, public domain, image cropped