Sarah Huckabee Sanders, after winning the Republican nomination in her race for governor in Tuesday's primary election, is on her way to making history as the first woman to lead the state, Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., told Newsmax.
"This is such a historic year," Hill told Wednesday's "Wake Up America." "This is the first redistricting controlled by Republicans since 1807. This is also the first hand-off of one Republican governor to add another Republican governor, and then the historic fact that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be our first female governor in Arkansas history."
Sanders, a former White House press secretary and daughter of former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, got 83% of the vote Tuesday over longshot challenger Doc Washburn, a former talk radio host and podcaster.
She will square off in November against nuclear engineer and ordained minister Chris Jones, who took the Democrat nomination.
Hill told Newsmax that inflation is the biggest issue for voters in his state, which is "costing families three times more than they're seeing in their paychecks," but the border is also a "terrible problem with crime and fentanyl deaths rising in our country, again because of mismanagement from [President] Joe Biden."
Sanders' main challenge, if elected governor, will be to develop the state's workforce, he added.
"She'll work with the federal delegation," he said. "We want to get Arkansans the training. They need education. They need to have an outstanding pursuit of happiness from the time they graduated from high school all the way through college and through the rest of their careers."
Meanwhile, incumbent Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., fought off a primary challenge from Republican Jake Bequette, and Hill praised the longtime lawmaker as an "absolute solid conservative voter," rejecting Bequette's campaign claims against him.
"He'll be the future chairman of the Agriculture Committee," Hill said. "Bequette made it that somehow, John Boozman didn't have a conservative voting record, and I think the voters of Arkansas know that that's absolutely not the case. John is a true conservative congressman."
Hill further commented on Georgia's pivotal races, where Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp defeated primary challengers that had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Football great Herschel Walker, also backed by Trump, won his primary race to face incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in November.
"We want our Republican Party and we want our conservatives united in Georgia," Hill said. "I believe strongly that we will take the House back. But if we want to take the Senate back, we need united Georgia conservatives and the Republican Party to make sure that we get Herschel elected in the fall."
"We can truly check this destructive Biden agenda if we have both the House and even a slim majority in the Senate," Hill added. "That gives us more tools to push back against the failures of this administration."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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