Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorses Trump ahead of third GOP debate

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) has endorsed former President Donald Trump for president in 2024. Sanders will give her seal of approval during his Wednesday rally in Florida ahead of the third GOP debate.

“It’s not a question between right versus left anymore. It’s normal versus crazy, and President Biden and the left are doubling down on crazy,” Sanders said in a statement. “The time has come to return to the normal policies of the Trump era which created a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America, and that’s why I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for President.”

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Sanders served as press secretary for Trump before running for governor in Arkansas. The former president offered his endorsement of her in the 2022 race, which she won handily by 63%.

“We had great success in the White House and it’s an honor to have Sarah’s endorsement. I look forward to having her at the big rally in Hialeah this Wednesday,” Trump said in a statement.

The Florida rally will take place just one hour before the third Republican National Committee primary debate in Miami, Florida.

Trump’s strategically timed and located rally undermines the potential reach for candidates taking the debate stage, but the rollout of Sanders’s endorsement could dampen some of the momentum Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was poised to have after securing an endorsement from Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA).

Reynolds, governor of the state with the first presidential caucuses in the nation, announced her support for DeSantis Monday night in Des Moines, Iowa. Her seal of approval came as DeSantis’s campaign has shifted its strategy to focus mainly on the Hawkeye State, hoping a win there would give him momentum going into the other primaries.

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The GOP primary debates could still offer DeSantis, or other candidates, a much-needed boost as the Iowa caucuses draw near. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received large boosts in polling across early voting states after she exceeded expectations during the first debate in August.

All eyes are on both DeSantis and Haley going into the event as the two continue to levy attacks at one another. Both donors and voters have expressed fatigue with the still crowded Republican field and lack of a viable non-Trump challenger to support. And as time wanes and money runs out, the top polling Trump competitors are battling it out to be the one to take the former president on head-to-head.