Not Trump's fault? Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the midterm blame game

Sarah Huckabee Sanders isn't one of those Republicans, many in states formerly known as red, who found themselves ousted from office in the midterm elections. But the freshly re-elected Arkansas governor does have some thoughts on what went wrong in the GOP.

Was it President Donald Trump ? Not his fault, she says.

"I think each race has to be looked at independently, and the president, while he still remains the most influential voice in all of Republican politics − frankly, in all of politics − his name wasn't on the ballot," she said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY about her new book, "Unapologetic," published Nov. 10 by St. Martin's Press. "And so I don't think that this can be a line drawn against him."

Actually, just about every independent analyst and a fair share of those in the GOP do blame Trump for losses that cost Republicans control of the House and the Senate and a majority of governorships. Exit polls of voters showed that dissatisfaction with the president, especially over the economy, propelled Democratic victories in such unlikely places as Texas and Kansas and South Carolina.

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But her defense does put Sanders − who served as White House press secretary for Trump in his first term − squarely in the all-in-for-Trump lane of the approaching debate about the GOP's future.

Even Vice President JD Vance struck a different tone in his autopsy of the midterms, putting a bit of distance between himself and his boss. "The reason we lost is the war" in Iran, Vance said i n a lengthy post on the social-media platform X the day after the election. "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so."

That was not an argument Vance went on to make. But Sanders did.

"I'm thankful that we have a president who is willing to stand up and do sometimes what is not easy, what is not always politically convenient, but what is certainly in the interest of the American people," she said, noting Iran's nuclear ambitions and its support of terrorism. "I'm thankful that we had a president that was willing to take that on" despite the "negative" economic consequences, including higher gas prices.

Her father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee , is a key player in the administration's Mideast policy as the U.S. ambassador to Israel .

"The president continues to be the most influential voice not just in the Republican Party but in all of politics," she repeated. "I don't think that's changing anytime soon."

Just to be clear, writing a book touting your record in office and publishing it as a presidential campaign is getting into gear is generally seen as a declaration of political ambition for bigger things.

Ask Jimmy Carter ("Why Not the Best?") or Barack Obama ("The Audacity of Hope"), both of whom went on to win their White House bids in 1976 and 2008, respectively. This year alone, books have sprouted from California Gov. Gavin Newsom ("Young Man in a Hurry") and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ("Where We Keep the Light") and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (Go and Do Likewise").

Vance has one, too. "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," published in June , tells the story of his spiritual journey to Catholicism .

Faith of the Baptist variety is threaded through Sanders' book, "Unapologetic: Clarity and Conviction in a World Gone Crazy." In it, she discusses the central importance of her faith in her personal life and her professional one.

She opens the book with an account of the jarring diagnosis of thyroid cancer in the middle of her first campaign for governor four years ago, and the successful 6-1/2-hour surgery to remove it. She champions her record in Arkansas of cutting taxes and revamping education, including an improvement in student test scores. There are affectionate anecdotes about her husband, political consultant Bryan Sanders, and their three children, Scarlett, Huck and George.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, she notes, the first mom to serve as White House press secretary, the first woman to be elected governor of Arkansas, and, at age 44, the youngest governor in the country.

Would she like to add the first woman president to her resume?

"I think everybody wants to rush into four years from now," she responded, laughing. "We're not even four days past the last election. I'm going to continue to keep my focus where it needs to be, and that's right here at home, doing the job I was just elected to have."

Neither was her response when asked if she would make a commitment to serve all four years of that new term.

"I certainly hope I have no reason to do anything other than be governor for the next four years."

She was 10 years old when her father, a Baptist preacher and radio host, first ran for governor of Arkansas and lost, later winning two terms.

When he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, she worked as his national political director. Eight years later, she managed his second presidential bid. After a stint as a commentator on Fox News, she became the White House press secretary for Trump.

She shares her father's hard-edged conservatism and his taste for political combat.

The midterms were a "tough night for Republicans," she acknowledged, with the economy "the biggest driver" behind the results. "Any time you're going into a midterm and people are feeling that pressure, they tend to go against the party that's in power." Now, she said, Republicans should "draw a very distinct difference" with Democrats on economic and other issues.

"I think a lot of the people in some of those states are going to have buyer's remorse" about their new Democratic leaders, she predicted, "and we'll see a shift come back in '28."

Speaking of 2028, she also called Vance "certainly the frontrunner for the Republican nomination."

There is no shortage of sons who have followed their fathers into governorships − among them the Sununus of New Hampshire, the Cuomos of New York, the Chafees of Rhode Island, the Beshears of Kentucky .

But Sanders is the first and so far only daughter to be elected governor of the same state as her father. (Kathleen Sebelius, daughter of Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, was twice elected governor of her adopted state of Kansas.)

Being the youngest governor in the country (a data point Sanders repeats nine times in her book) means she would be just 46 at the next presidential election, in 2028, and only 50 at the one after that, in 2032. That would be two years after her second term ends, with Arkansas term limits preventing a third.