Opinion

OPINION | BRENDA BLAGG: State’s gubernatorial victor will make history, whether it’s Jones or Sanders

Jones or Sanders would be gubernatorial firsts

Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the attendees of the Association of Arkansas Counties 54th Annual Conference.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the attendees of the Association of Arkansas Counties 54th Annual Conference.


Recent news reports painted a bleak financial picture for one gubernatorial candidate and underscored a huge advantage for another.

It is exactly the kind of fundraising imbalance anticipated when Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of a former governor and a former press secretary in Donald Trump's White House, announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Arkansas governor.

It didn't really matter who was running against her. That close Trump connection in this ever-reddening, Trump-backing state was money in the bank for Sanders.

You may recall that Sanders' mere consideration of a run for the office her daddy, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996 to 2007 triggered jitters among other governor wannabes.

Way back in early 2021, the state's current lieutenant governor, Republican Tim Griffin, abandoned his announced, long-planned bid for the governor's seat. He's running instead for attorney general in this year's constitutional-office-turnover triggered by term limits on most of the statewide officeholders.

The current attorney general, Republican Leslie Rutledge, had also intended to be governor next term. She stayed in the race longer than Griffin. But she, too, got out when the reality hit that she'd have trouble competing for campaign funds against Sanders.

So, the term-limited attorney general is running for lieutenant governor.

Both Rutledge and Griffin won the Republican nominations for their fallback choices and both, like Sanders, are heavily favored to win the respective offices in the Nov. 8 general election.

But Sanders, who has also socked away endorsements from term-limited Gov. Asa Hutchinson and pretty much every other Republican officeholder in the state, is far and away the most favored.

An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette comparison of the leading candidates' fundraising vividly makes the point.

Sanders' campaign recently reported a whopping $6.3 million on hand to finish the race. And that's just part of the record-breaking $16 million her campaign has amassed altogether.

By comparison, Chris Jones, the Democratic nominee, reported just $118,800 on hand going into this critical stretch of the campaign, out of the $2.6 million he has raised.

Jones is a political newcomer who has an impressive resume, if not the funds to make himself better known to Arkansas voters.

He still needs to be introduced to many of Arkansas' voters while Sanders, or Huckabee Sanders, is a household name in this state.

Jones, a Pine Bluff native who can trace his Arkansas ancestry back seven generations to a slave record from a south Arkansas plantation, is a nuclear physicist and a minister. He most recently served the state as executive director of the nonprofit Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub.

The son of two ministers, Jones has wanted to be governor since boyhood. He first studied physics and math on a full NASA scholarship at Morehouse College in Atlanta, earning undergraduate degrees, then earned advanced degrees in nuclear engineering and urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jones became an ordained minister several years ago when he came home to Arkansas.

Sanders has similarly lived and worked away from Arkansas, returning home after her stint as the White House press secretary.

The Hope native holds a bachelor of arts degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. Also active in Republican organizations, she majored in political science and minored in mass communications.

Her work background includes campaign positions for her father's gubernatorial re-election in 2002 as well as for several other federal candidates. She was national political director for Mike Huckabee's 2008 bid for president.

She served as a senior adviser for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and was named White House press secretary in July 2017.

All those positions and related private enterprise gave Sanders a high profile and contact with Republican movers and shakers, including potential donors, throughout the country.

That helps explain why about 57 percent of her fundraising, more than $7.6 million from donors identified by name and addresses, comes from out of state.

Jones' out-of-state collections have accounted for about 46 percent of his contributions from identified donors, or about $900,000.

Both Sanders and Jones are married and each has three children with their respective spouses. Sanders is 40, Jones is 45.

While there are some parallels, their educations and their experiences in life and work are quite different.

For more information about each, view their websites at sarahforgovernor.com and chrisforgovernor.com.

This much is certain: What we have here is a historic contest between two Arkansas natives. If elected, she would be Arkansas' first female governor, while he would be the state's first Black governor.

There are others in the race filed as Libertarian and independent candidates, but the only actual contest is between Sanders and Jones.

He's her closest rival in the polls and even in fundraising -- as distant as it is.


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