Republican Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders released her first television ad of the campaign cycle on Friday, highlighting her memory of her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), and former President Clinton welcoming the Little Rock Nine to Little Rock Central High in 1997.
The Little Rock Nine, nine Black students who enrolled at Little Rock Central High in 1957, were prevented from entering the then-segregated school by then-Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus.
“I’ll never forget being a student at Little Rock Central High and watching my dad, a Republican governor, and Bill Clinton, a Democrat president, hold open the doors for the Little Rock Nine, doors that 40 years earlier had been closed to them because they’re Black,” Huckabee Sanders said in the ad.
“Good triumphed over evil,” Huckabee Sanders continued. “This is who we are.”
“The radical left wants to teach our kids America is a racist and evil country, but Arkansans are generous, hard-working people,” she said.
The minutelong ad is set to debut on Saturday during the Arkansas vs. Texas football game.
Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House press secretary under former President Trump, is running against Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Her campaign said in July she has raised $9 million since announcing her candidacy.