OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Newly elected Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has pledged to bring a “bold” new vision into office as the state’s first female to serve in her position. In addition to making history as the first female governor, she also happens to be the youngest in the country.
During her inaugural speech, Sanders, 40, who served as then-President Donald Trump’s second press secretary, pledged to bring an aggressive, bold, and conservative” agenda that will have a “generational impact” on the state.
Sanders easily bested Democratic challenger Chris Jones in November. She succeeds GOP Gov. Asa Hutchison, who endorsed her candidacy, even as he has offered up criticism of her former boss.
She also follows in her father’s footsteps, who led Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, Fox News reported.
“It is a pretty humbling thing,” Sanders told Fox News Digital during an exclusive interview before she was sworn into office. “As far as we know, we’ll be the first-ever father-daughter pair anywhere in the country, and so, you know, that is a pretty historic and amazing thing.”
Sanders has spent years in politics working on several campaigns. She said she “always thought” she would work “more behind the scenes” in politics, but it did not work out that way.
“And here I am, anything but after the last few years,” she told Fox News. “It certainly was not the path I envisioned, but it is one I’m extremely excited and enthusiastic about taking on.”
The newly sworn-in governor said she is “a little biased” but noted that her father is “certainly the best governor we’ve ever had here in Arkansas and one of the best governors we’ve ever had in the country.”
“He’s set the bar high, and I have very big shoes to fill,” Sanders said, going on to say there is “nobody more hopeful and more helpful in helping me achieve my goals.”
She also said that reforming education is one of her primary objectives.
“I’ve made no secret that the biggest priority I have for this session is a large-scale education reform package,” Sanders said. “I am really excited to work with our legislative partners to bring about education reform that, I think, will have a generational impact on our state.”
She says as a mother of small children, she is familiar with current education methods and standards, which she finds lacking.
“I am living it every day with a fifth-grader, a third-grader and a first-grader, and I feel the impact of education and what it means and what it means to each kid,” she said, adding that they “all learn differently and all need different things.”
