Sarah Huckabee Sanders descends a grand staircase in the Arkansas governor’s official residence, covered in a carpet embroidered with the names of every governor who has resided there, including Bill Clinton. It’s hard to believe that Bill and Hillary dominated the political life of this southern state, which is now one of the laboratories of the MAGA movement, for more than a decade.
The daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee first gained fame for having the “honor” of serving as President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman from 2017 to 2019. In Washington, D.C., she was criticized for “burning the facts and then using the ashes to create a perfect smoky eye ” and to look like Aunt Lydia (sadistic character from the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale) at a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Sarah Sanders is home today, in the comfort of her neo-Georgian mansion in Little Rock, where the sweet smell of bacon and scrambled eggs hangs in the air on this August morning. She is about to unveil the 14 finalists for the 2025 Arkansas Teacher of the Year in front of an audience of education professionals. She says she has remained “humble” thanks in part to her three children, then reiterates some of the strong measures in her “Arkansas Learns” plan: a substantial increase in the base salary for teachers, the granting of 12 weeks of maternity leave, the allocation of new resources for children having difficulty reading…
His education agenda also includes a ban on the teaching of critical race theory and other “indoctrination,” and a voucher system that allows parents to enroll their children in a highly rated private school—a religious school, for example—rather than the less highly rated local public school, without breaking the bank. Teaching the Bible or posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms is not mandatory in Arkansas, but it is in Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Culture War
Arkansas is one of the theaters of the culture war that is raging in the United States. Governor Sanders has notably signed into law a law preventing trans people from using the bathrooms or locker rooms corresponding to their gender identity, and another dissuading health professionals from providing gender-affirming care to trans people. In her eyes, “there is only the vision woke “America’s far-left party that is inadequate to protect children.” Additionally, she supports erecting a monument to symbolize the abortions that were performed in Arkansas before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling. Roe v. Wadein 2022.
The heyday of “pragmatic populism” is behind Arkansas, says Jay Barth, director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. Full-throated partisanship has taken over politics in the state of 3 million people. And the personalities of the candidates for governor are seen as less important than they used to be. “Not that they’ve been completely absent, but social issues have been muted in Arkansas politics for a long time. There’s been more focus on education and health care and other more substantive issues than on hot-button social issues,” he says, standing just steps from a replica of the White House Oval Office as it appeared in the 1990s — where visitors can have their portrait taken behind a replica of the Resolute Desk for about $15.
From blue to red
Arkansas is a one-party state. It was the Democratic Party’s state from 1874 to the 2010s. The donkey party lost the governor’s mansion three times, from 1967-1971, 1981-1983, and 1996-2007, but enjoyed a majority in the General Assembly until Barack Obama’s presidency. The urban, cosmopolitan black man failed to forge ties with rural Arkansas. The white man Donald Trump succeeded. Since then, Arkansas has gone from blue to red.
At a coffee shop, Patsy Sharp scoffs at her “too spicy” soup. The retired civil servant, who moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma 50 years ago, admits to being one of the state’s diehard Democrats. “When I first came here, they asked me, ‘What do you want to vote for?’ I said, ‘Republican!’ They said, ‘Honey, you don’t want to be a Republican in this state. You’re not going to have anybody to vote for.’ I voted Democrat! I’ve been doing that ever since,” she says, refusing to try her soup again.
Most of her friends and family have switched their Democratic Party cards to Republicans, but Patsy has remained a Democrat. For life and death. She trusts neither Sarah Sanders nor Donald Trump, who “lies like he breathes,” she says, glancing at the flower on the table in front of her. “My kids don’t even realize it,” she laments. “Hillary and Bill had a vision to help America prosper…”
Bill Clinton left more than a presidential library, an airport and a boulevard named after him and portraits in Little Rock government buildings; he put education issues at the top of the agenda for the state’s politicians and emphasized ethics by regulating campaign financing and lobbying, among other things. “Bill Clinton also paved the way for historical outsiders to enter politics, not just people of color, but women. I think that legacy lives on,” says Jay Barth, who co-wrote the textbook. Arkansas Politics and Government.
Wind of disapproval
Currently, the Republican Party controls not only the governor’s mansion, but also both houses of the General Assembly, with the Democratic Party having only 18 members (compared to 82 for the Republican Party) in the House of Representatives and 6 members (compared to 29 Republicans) in the Senate.
From her office on Capitol Hill, Sarah Sanders can see the 10 Commandments inscribed in stone to her left. The controversial monument is now protected by bollards designed to stop the momentum of any motorist trying to imitate Michael T. Reed. In the spring of 2017, the Arkansas native plowed his Dodge Dart into the granite slab, which broke when it hit the ground.
In Reconstruction, the Democratic Party is now scrambling to break the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly, which would give it a say in budget and tax bills.
Democratic strategist Austin Ross says he senses a wave of disapproval toward the Sanders administration, particularly over his vouchers, which favor private schools over public schools. “These kinds of policies are motivating Democrats in Arkansas in a way they haven’t been in a long time,” he says as he walks through the halls of Democratic Party headquarters, which are stacked with campaign materials of all kinds, including dozens of posters “ Arkansas for Biden-Harris “, dedicated to recycling.
In the shadow of the Capitol, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas is on every front—at the Capitol, in the press, in the courts, in the elections with referenda—to stop the Sanders administration’s steamroller. The team is working to “protect the pillars of American democracy”—like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, not to mention women’s reproductive and abortion rights, trans rights, and the rights of people of African-American descent—in a toxic political climate.
“It used to be possible to disagree without denigrating the person you disagree with,” says ACLU of Arkansas Director Holly Dickson. [Donald Trump] “allows people to say and do things that they themselves previously considered unacceptable. We’ve seen a real shift since the Trump presidency, for which Sarah Sanders was a long-time spokesperson. And the governor has brought that hostility home with her. It’s incredibly disappointing,” the activist continued, before offering a mini-Constitution of the United States, complete with a note on “what to do if you’re stopped by the police,” to the Duty.
Demon and conspiracy theories
Religious radio station Faith Radio has not hesitated to present Kamala Harris’ running mate, Democrat Tim Walz, as an ally of the devil since he defends LGBTQ+ people.
Conspiracy theories from Trump supporters, including those about the Clintons, continue to flourish in Little Rock. “I don’t particularly like him or his wife. They’ve done bad things,” says Richard Bogatch, standing outside his pretty purple home in the heart of Little Rock. Then he goes on to talk about human trafficking for sexual exploitation in the United States, repeating one of the wildest conspiracy theories of the pre-COVID-19 years. The man recently moved from California to Arkansas to be closer to his children. Sarah Sanders “does a lot to help people here,” he notes.
Conservatives feel right at home in Arkansas.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is working to strengthen Arkansas’ “civic health” through a variety of initiatives, including a series of workshops for teachers. “Empirical evidence shows that [la vie démocratique de] “Arkansas is in very bad shape, whether it’s voter turnout, voter registration or other indicators of a healthy democracy,” Barth said. “We see it as our responsibility to use the resources at our disposal to revitalize civic health in the state of Arkansas,” he added.
Following Sarah Sanders’ speech at her official residence, The Duty approaches Arkansas’ 2024 Teacher of the Year Beau McCastlain to discuss the concerns of his students, including a few aspiring journalists, about the state of democracy in Arkansas. Out of the blue, a female official grabs the man regardless of his title and shields him from the teacher’s questions. Duty.
This report was financed with the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund-The Duty.