Sanders, Cotton and 2028

By STEVE BRAWNER

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Tom Cotton both had primetime speaking slots at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. Four years from now, could either one speak a night or two later?

Those would be the nights the presidential or vice presidential nominee might speak.

Sanders never talks publicly about running for a higher office. She always says she is committed to serving two terms as governor of Arkansas. At 41, she is the country’s youngest governor and has plenty of time. She has three children ages 12, 10 and 9. Cotton, 47, cited his own children when he announced (wisely, it turned out) that he would not run for president this election cycle. He also has time on his side.

If Sanders wanted to run for president, she is set up to do so. That primetime speaking slot doesn’t just go to anybody. Sanders had that opportunity because she’s closely associated with President Trump, she knows how to speak Republicans’ language, and she’s famous. Not just anybody is the target of a regular impressionist on “Saturday Night Live.” She was. (There’s also been a Cotton character, but just once, as far as I’m aware.)

Meanwhile, Sanders has done what she would need to do as governor to position herself to run for president in a Republican primary. With the LEARNS Act, she can point to major conservative education reform legislation that provided funding for children to attend private schools. She can say she’s cut taxes. She can say she passed a crime bill that includes a huge new prison and stronger sentences. She can say that she sent troops to the border with Mexico. And she can say that under her leadership, Arkansas moved to kick Chinese-owned companies off its farmland. In fact, she referred in passing to all of those things in her speech.

One question that will have to be answered is whether Republicans will be ready to nominate, and Americans ready to elect, a female president.

In fact, she was asked about that by Politico’s Jonathan Martin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday.

“I do think our country’s ready,” she said. “I think that there is a great desire for a female to serve in that role, and when and who that is certainly is yet to be seen. But I think our country is ready for that and would be supportive of it.”

Sanders’ speech was about 12 minutes. Cotton, who spoke before her, got five minutes. Still, it was a prime time slot. While Sanders’ speech was personal in her remarks about Trump, Cotton focused entirely on illegal immigration.

When Sanders announced she was running for governor, she probably replaced Cotton as the most likely Arkansan to be a future president. 

But Cotton also is well positioned. He has adopted the populist language of the current American Republican Party, where Trump has replaced Ronald Reagan as the party’s inspirational figure. With his hard-edged speaking style and rhetoric, Cotton has been a frequent guest on network and cable TV news shows. He’s been campaigning at out-of-state events in places like Iowa for many years. He certainly looks and acts like someone who has national ambitions. And in fact, the New York Times reported in May that he was one of Trump’s top five remaining choices to be his vice presidential running mate.

Many an opinion page space has been wasted by pundits speculating about future presidential candidacies. Take this piece with a grain of salt. We’ve still got a whole ‘nother presidential election between now and 2028.

Still, four years from now, we’ll be at this same place, talking about the Republican presidential nominee. Sanders or Cotton certainly could be that person. 

Unless it’s Trump, as it’s been in every election since 2016. Remember, if he loses, he can run again.

Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 17 news outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.