Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Less than three months after announcing her Arkansas gubernatorial run,Sarah Huckabee Sandershas shattered a statewide record for fundraising, raking in $4.8 million in her first quarter as a candidate.
“I am grateful for the generous support of so many Arkansans – in 60 days we held over 50 events in Arkansas and received more than 6,500 donations across all 75 counties of the state,” she said in the release.
According to her campaign, more than 34,700 donors contributed at an average amount of under $97 per donation (90 percent of the campaign’s donations were for $100 or less).
As CBS News noted, Sandersraised more money in the first quarterthan the $4.4 million that term-limited Gov. Asa Hutchinson raised throughout his entire 2014 race.
While the election remains more than a year away, Sanders' financial support indicates she will be a significant candidate in the field.
She announced her campaign in late January, with a video that drew heavily on her time in the administration of former PresidentDonald Trump.
She tweeted her thanks to Trump for “hosting an amazing event” for her campaign.
The former president endorsed Sanders' bid for governor in January,issuing a statementin which he called her a “warrior who will always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct.”
Sanders served as Trump’s White House press secretary until June 2019, previously taking over as deputy White House press secretary in January 2017, after Sean Spicer, Trump’s first spokeswoman, abruptly left.
Sanders joined Fox News as contributor in September 2019, though the network has since said that its agreement was terminated in light of her candidacy.
Last year, Sanders published a memoir about her time at the White House.
A staunch defender of Trump’s in her role as White House spokeswoman, Sanders wrote inSpeaking for Myselfthat he “isn’t perfect” but said she supported his re-election bid.
Sanders' father, Mike Huckabee, served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and was a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016.
Lawmakers in the stateultimately overrodethat veto.
source: people.com
