Sanders, 40, said she is cancer-free and will return to the campaign trail. “During a check-up earlier this month, my doctor ordered a biopsy on an area of concern on my neck and the test revealed that I had thyroid cancer,” Sanders said. “Today, I underwent a successful surgery to remove my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes and by God’s grace I am now cancer free.” Sanders included a statement from her doctor, John R. Sims, who said her cancer was “Stage 1 papillary thyroid carcinoma,” which he described as the most common type of thyroid cancer. Sims said Sanders will need “adjuvant radioactive iodine treatment” and called her prognosis excellent. Sanders, a native of Arkansas and daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), managed her father’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential run before joining Donald Trump’s campaign as a senior communications adviser. He also served as a spokesman during Trump’s first election campaign. She left the White House as press secretary in June 2019. At the time, Trump urged her to run for governor. At the White House, she first worked as a top deputy to Sean Spicer, Trump’s first press secretary, until he resigned in July 2017, when she took over his role. She was the first working mother and only the third woman to serve as White House press secretary, according to the Associated Press. During her early days, some praised her calm demeanor at then-daily press briefings — a stark contrast to Spicer. But Sanders soon clashed with reporters, passionately defending Trump while confronting reporters — even when the information she provided was, at times, false. One such case earned a mention in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on Russian election meddling. In May 2017, Sanders claimed that the White House had heard from “countless members of the FBI” who supported Trump’s decision to fire the FBI director James B. Comey. She doubled down on her claim the next day, insisting that supportive emails and texts had come in. In Mueller’s report, however, he said under oath that the allegation was “slang.” Announcing her run for governor, Sanders said, “I took on the media, the radical left and their ‘cancellation culture,’ and I won. As governor, I will be your voice and never let them silence you.” He is heavily favored to win the Republican-leaning state in November against Democrat Chris Jones. Andrea Salcedo contributed to this report.
