Sarah Sanders in hot water as MAGA loyalists fume over plans for giant $825M Arkansas prison
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing increasing opposition from her own political base over plans to build a large state prison in a very conservative area. This indicates that Republican voters in the state are not all on the same page.
The plan calls for building a 3,000-bed prison on more than 800 acres in Franklin County, which is known for being a strong Republican area. Sanders has said that the project is needed to deal with overcrowding in Arkansas prisons, which is a major part of her administration's law-and-order agenda.
Billboards and yard signs show resistance to prison
Billboards and yard signs in the region now read “SAY NO TO THE PRISON!” and “Keep the country, country.”
“In the state of Arkansas, we’re a very split Republican Party,” Johnny Crocker, the local sheriff, told the Journal. “It’s big government against small government… These people want power. And that’s simple.”
J B Jackson, a resident who lives across the street from the proposed prison site, runs a popular, local Facebook page called Arkansas Alcatraz. The page is riddled with memes against the prison.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sanders "blindsided" voters by ramming through plans for a 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres of rocky pastureland south of the Arkansas River, sparking an unlikely revolt from MAGA conservatives.
The conflict has escalated from heated to explosive, with both sides claiming to represent Trump's actual vision for governance.
In the run-up, Sanders vowed to address crime and clean up the crisis of severe overcrowding in Arkansas prisons, the third-highest incarceration rate per capita in the country after Louisiana and Mississippi, based on federal records.
Her remedy: an enormous new plant that would cost around $825 million. Those opposed to this argue that the rocky landscape will add to the cost by an enormous margin and that the remote site will make the recruitment of staff a nightmare.
Dispute exposes divisions within GOP
Jackson has also covered his property with signs reading “Make AR Great Again—Impeach Sanders” and plastic skeletons wearing T-shirts opposing the prison.
Funding for the project has stalled at the state level as the local feud has boiled over into Arkansas politics.
Allies of Sanders suffered major defeats in the state’s primary elections earlier this month as she unsuccessfully attempted to primary two Republican state senators, Bryan King and Ronald Caldwell, both of whom have repeatedly voted against the facility.
Sanders, a former Trump press secretary and daughter of former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee, has made cracking down on crime one of the pillars of her administration.
She has argued that the new prison is necessary because facilities in Arkansas, which is just behind Louisiana and Mississippi in incarcerations per capita, are already overflowing with inmates.
Still, some area residents have grown so fed up with Sanders that they have begun calling themselves RASH, or “Republicans Against Sarah Huckabee.” Jackson said he is prepared to launch a statewide campaign against Sanders.
