Sarah Huckabee Sanders was sworn in as the new Republican governor of Arkansas on Tuesday. She immediately signed several executive orders, including one that directed officials to remove the potentially offensive term “Latinx” from all state documents.
Sanders ordered that each occurrence of “Latinx” and “Latinxs” be removed and replaced with culturally appropriate terms, including “Hispanic,” “Latino” and “Latina.”
The order states the government can “no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English.”
The order adds: “It is the policy of the Governor’s administration to prohibit the use of culturally insensitive words for official state government business.”
Great speech by Gov Sarah Sanders. The first woman governor of Arkansas, the youngest governor in the country and first daughter and father as governors. What a day. pic.twitter.com/zcKucSF7DS
— Janet Huckabee (@janethuckabee) January 11, 2023
In other executive orders, Sanders placed a hiring moratorium on all executive branch state government jobs after her first day in office. It provides that any department that needs to fill a position must submit a request for an executive review by the governor.
Another order requires that all new or revised state agency rules be submitted to the governor’s office for approval before they are forwarded to a legislative committee for further action.
Sanders also ordered the state inspector general to review all outstanding executive orders for possible waste or inefficiency. She also directed the state secretary of commerce to review all outstanding unemployment benefit payments for fraudulent claims. In addition, the department is ordered to check for multiple claims from single addresses and claims by incarcerated persons.
She also ordered that the state secretary of education review all public school materials to ensure that teachers, professors, contractors, guest speakers and lecturers do not indoctrinate students in critical race theory. The order stated it is intended to prevent violations of titles IV and VI of the federal Civil Rights Act.
Sanders served as White House press secretary during the first administration of President Donald Trump.
President Trump endorsed Gov. Sanders in her bid to become the first woman to ever serve as governor of Arkansas. Sanders is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
In commemorating Sanders taking office on Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social: “CONGRATULATIONS to Sarah Huckabee Sanders on being sworn in today as the first female Governor of the GREAT STATE of ARKANSAS. She is a fantastic person and will be a truly incredible Governor.”
The new governor had a medical situation that could have impacted her campaign last year, but she battled it with grace and determination. She revealed last September that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
In a press statement at the time, she said her doctor “ordered a biopsy on an area of concern in my neck and the test revealed that I had thyroid cancer.” She also said she had already undergone “a successful surgery to remove my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes and by the grace of God I am now cancer-free.”
