Sarah Huckabee Sanders Receives Encouragement to Run for President in 2028

Supporters and donors have been encouraging Republican Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to run for president in the 2028 cycle, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke to ABC News.

Asked about the outreach Sanders has been receiving, her communications director Sam Dubke told ABC News that "Governor Sanders looks forward to serving the people of Arkansas for the next four years."

Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, himself a former Arkansas governor, a Republican presidential candidate and the current U.S. ambassador to Israel. Sanders won re-election as governor last week. She became the first woman ever elected Arkansas governor in 2022.

Before becoming governor, Sanders served as President Donald Trump's press secretary in his first term, from July 2017 to June 2019, after having served as deputy press secretary. She was also a senior adviser to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

While Sanders formally briefed the White House press corps less than her predecessors, she became one of Trump's closest and most trusted advisers and has maintained a close relationship with him, having worked for Trump in the White House for three and a half years.

Sanders has long been viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party. In 2023, a few months after winning the gubernatorial race, she delivered the Republican response to former President Joe Biden's State of the Union address—remarks usually reserved for individuals seen as on their way up in the party.

Georgia's retiring, popular two-term Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is also said to be getting encouragement to run. A source familiar with his thinking told ABC News that Kemp is considering a presidential bid after he leaves office in January and has been encouraged by donors and other Republican officials.

In the days leading up to the midterm elections, Kemp traveled to South Carolina, one of the early nominating states for Republicans, to campaign for Governor-elect Alan Wilson. ABC News has reached out to Kemp's political operation for comment.

After Republicans' midterm losses, the party is reflecting on what went wrong and how to move forward, with some of those conversations happening publicly. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has not ruled out a 2028 presidential run, called Republicans' performance in the midterm elections a "Watergate-level repudiation" of the party.

Outgoing Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis described the election results as a "meteor strike," arguing that even a "wave" fails to capture the scale of the Republican losses. DeSantis is keeping his options open for another presidential run, according to two people familiar with his thinking who spoke to ABC News.