Supporters and donors have been encouraging Republican Arkansas governor and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to run for president in the 2028 cycle, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
When 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, the daughter of Mike Huckabee, himself a former Arkansas governor, Repubican presidential candidate and current U.S. ambassador to Israel, won re-election as governor last week. She became the first woman ever elected Arkansas governor in 2022.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks on stage on the second day of the Republican National Convention, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee.
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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 3 1/2 years.
Sanders has long been viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party.
In 2023, a few months after winning the gubernatorial race in Arkansas, Sanders 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 Gov. Brian Kemp is also considering a presidential bid after he leaves office in January and has been encouraged by donors and other Republican officials to run, a source familiar with his thinking told ABC News.
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 Gov.-elect Alan Wilson.
ABC News has reached out to Kemp’s political operation for comment.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp speaks during a campaign event, Sept. 28, 2026, in Forsyth, Ga.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
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 Sen. 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 Gov. 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, two people familiar with his thinking told ABC News, after the governor said Florida fended off a blue wave in this year’s midterm elections.
