SPRINGDALE -- Republican governor candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders drew 850 people to the first of a planned series of lectures hosted by the Washington County Republican Committee, speaking at the 1,200-seat fine arts center of the Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale.
"The political climate in our country has reached toxic levels," Washington County committee chairman Brian Lester said before introducing Sanders. The lecture series was launched, in part, to create a forum for a more civil discourse of issues, Lester said. The goal was also to create a complementary event to the more formal annual Lincoln Day Dinner, he said.
Sanders then spoke, saying the "radical left wants to change who we are as a country. People say I'm nationalizing the race. You bet I am. If you are not paying attention to what's happening in Washington, you're not watching what's happening in the country." States need strong, conservative governors to resist those national efforts, to make sure schools are "educating, not indoctrinating kids" and empowering parents, she said.
"I'm only afraid of what happens if we don't have the right leader," Sanders said.
Event attendee Stacey Ferguson of West Fork said she was convinced after the speech that Sanders was an example of the Christian values she wanted to see in a leader.
Sanders, the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, faces primary opponent Francis "Doc" Washburn in the May 24 primary. She will then face the winner among of the five Democratic contenders in that party's primary, four independents and Libertarian nominee Ricky Dale Harrington Jr.
The lecture series kicked off Thursday is named the Rockefeller-Huckabee series after former governors Winthrop Rockefeller and Huckabee, Lester said, to remind the now-dominant party that it was a heavily outnumbered minority when those two men were governors. Huckabee gave remarks on video at Thursday's event. "I never want us to forget where we come from, how hard it was to get here and how easily we could go back," the former governor said.
Grant Tennille, chairman of the state Democratic Party, took exception to Sanders remarks about educators indoctrinating children into government dependence.
"It takes guts to ride your campaign bus to a public school and accuse teachers of turning out America-hating freeloaders looking for a handout," Tennille said. "That's an insult to teachers."
The fine arts center is available to rent and was reserved by the Washington County Republican Committee, said organizer state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs. Thursday's event was not affiliated with the school.