Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whom many consider to be making a bid for a vice presidential nod in 2024, announced that her state is now banning the use of “X” for gender on state driver’s licenses.
Sanders’ office announced that the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) would rescind previous administrative procedures that allowed people to use an “X” designation instead of male or female on state-issued IDs. The ID must now align with the gender on the birth certificate of the resident.
“This policy is just common sense,” Sanders told The Daily Wire. “Only women give birth, men shouldn’t play women’s sports, and there are only two genders. As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas state government will not endorse nonsense.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/arkansas-to-ban-use-of-x-on-drivers-licenses-says-gender-must-match-birth-certificate
There are a couple, interesting things.
One, Sanders shared her announcement first with The Daily Wire. Not Arkansas voters. Not local press.
In other words, she’s making a clear overture to national conservatives. She wants this move in the national news, and yeah, The Daily Wire made sure it was (to an extent).
Second, the timing is significant. Trump is currently deliberating on a vice-presidential pick and Sanders (just like her dad, Mike) sports national aspirations.
With Tim Scott emerging as the pseudo-CW pick for the moment, other Veep wannabes have to scramble, and that means doing things like announcing new bans on things that hadn’t even been previously codified in state law (such as this license plate thing), and releasing that information first to the national conservative outlet that’s been famously outspoken on these things.
So expect a lot more announcements like this from the pack of Veep contenders in the coming months.
And I say “coming months” because even though Trump claimed he’d already decided on a VP pick in January (unlikely, as he’s famously known for swift changes of mind), the TV showman in him seems to love the Veepstakes Pick Game.
In fact, it’s hard to think of another presidential nominee who’s more openly teased, name-dropped, and encouraged a national dialogue around “Who Trump Will Pick?”
It’s engaging. It keeps you clicking. It’s… yeah, fun.
So you’d expect him to announce a pick close to the July convention (maybe even at the convention, which would quadruple the ratings).
And that means — four more months of endless auditioning, which Trump, no doubt, loves.
(And four more months of headline-grabbing moves by Veep hopefuls).
[Photo: Public Domain]