Sarah Huckabee Sanders Eyes Culture Wars as She Takes Office

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the newly sworn-in Governor of Arkansas, appears ready to adopt a similar playbook of other GOP governors by stoking culture wars while in office.

On her first day as governor, the former White House press secretary for Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders, including banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools and the use of the word "Latinx" from all government documents.

During her inaugural speech on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol, Sanders vowed that she would not allow the "brainwashing" of children with "left-wing political agenda" without specifically mentioning CRT—an academic study which looks at systemic racism in American laws and institutions.

In one of seven executive orders the governor signed just hours after she entered office, Sanders vowed to remove any "indoctrination" of school education policies, including the teachings of CRT.

"Critical Race Theory is antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness," the order states. "It emphasizes skin color as a person's primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject."

Sanders pushed to ban the teaching of CRT in Arkansas schools despite the subject being a college-level course that isn't taught in any public K-12 school.

In a statement, the Democratic Party of Arkansas said Sanders' first term in office will be remembered for attacking the state's schools and teachers for apparent "indoctrination" of children.

"Arkansas Democrats stand with our teachers and know they are first and foremost much too busy grading papers, buying their own supplies, and making lesson plans to indoctrinate anyone," the statement added.

Elsewhere, Sanders also signed an executive order banning official Arkansas documents from using "Latinx"—a term which replaces the gendered Latino/Latina terminology to refer to Latin Americans.

Sanders cited a poll from Pew Research which found that only three percent of American Latinos and Hispanics use the word "Latinx" to describe themselves.

The word "Latinx" has also faced criticism in that it imposes American standards on a foreign language, with the Executive Order also noting that the Real Academia Española, which governs the Spanish language, has officially rejected the use of "x" as an alternative to "o" and "a" in Spanish.

"Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles," the order states.

"The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities."

Sanders appears to be trying to appeal to the Republican base by adapting similar tactics used by other high-profile GOP governors. For example, Florida's Ron DeSantis has previously vowed to make the Sunshine State a place where "woke goes to die."

One move against the "indoctrination" of children DeSantis pushed through was the introduction of the so-called "don't say gay" bill, a controversial bill which aims to bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grades at Florida schools.

In late 2021, Glenn Youngkin also made banning CRT one of his key policies during his campaign for Virginia governor, despite there being no real suggestions it was being discussed in K-12 classes.

The tactic appeared to work as he was able to defeat his Democrat opponent Terry McAuliffe, who was also heavily criticized for dismissing parents' concerns about the subject as they should not be "telling schools what they should teach."