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YORBA LINDA, Calif. -- Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn't directly rule out a run for president when asked by audience members during the first stop of her national book tour Wednesday evening.

Wrapping up an hourlong event at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, two audience members asked Sanders whether she would consider seeking the nation's top job. Responding to the first such question, after a round of loud applause and cheers from the room, Sanders said: "Thank you."

"I'm honored that I just won reelection," Sanders said, drawing laughter from the crowd. "How (did I get to) keep doing the job that I have? I found that if you do a really good job and focus on what's in front of you, the rest of the plan will figure itself out. And I'm very hopeful that I'll get to do the job that I have for the next four years and do a great job for the people of Arkansas."

After the second such question from another audience member, Sanders said: "I'm just happy to have a job this week."

Sanders' cross-country book tour, which has raised speculation on her plans to seek higher office, comes just a week after a bruising midterm election for GOP candidates across the country.

Unlike multiple Republicans across the country, Sanders won reelection on Nov. 3, garnering nearly 54% of the vote in her bid for a second four-year term as Arkansas' governor. She faced Democratic state Sen. Fred Love of Little Rock and Libertarian Colt Shelby of Cecil.

Sanders' book, "Unapologetic: Clarity and Conviction in a World Gone Crazy," was officially released Tuesday.

The GOP's midterm thrashing was among Sanders' first remarks at the event.

"I'm just going to rip the Band-Aid off. I know it's been a hard week," Sanders said. "But there is still so much hope, because look around the room -- if there wasn't, this place would not be packed."

She also highlighted the other GOP victories across Arkansas last week, including U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton's winning reelection along with all four of Arkansas' sitting U.S. House members, who are Republicans.

"We won because we worked together to accomplish good things for the people of our state," Sanders said Wednesday. "We won because we did not abandon or back down from any of our principles. We won because we implemented strong conservative policy, and the people who we were elected to serve benefited by the work that we had done, and we did not apologize for it, we leaned in."

In "Unapologetic," Sanders details her 2022 gubernatorial campaign and subsequent roles as the first female governor of the Natural State and as a key figure in national Republican politics.

Among a slew of other topics, Sanders' writes about developing and implementing the Arkansas LEARNS Act, her signature school choice education policy, which she also discussed at the event Wednesday. She also wrote about her conflict with the Arkansas Board of Corrections.

Before returning to Arkansas, Sanders served as White House press secretary for two years during President Donald Trump's first term in office. In her new book, Sanders praised her former boss, calling the first year of Trump's second term "a remarkable success."

On Wednesday, she referred to her press secretary stint, but didn't mention Trump by name.

A large portion of her speech Wednesday -- also Veterans Day -- was a reading of an excerpt from "Unapologetic" about Chief Petty Officer Adam Brown, a Navy SEAL from Hot Springs killed in Afghanistan in 2010. Brown, who was 36 at the time of his death, is the second person awarded the Arkansas Medal of Freedom , created by Sanders in 2024.

"Adam was on a destructive path to nowhere, but by God's grace, he became a loving husband, father, and one of the greatest American heroes of his generation," Sanders said. "What is God telling us through Adam's story? That no matter how far we have fallen, we are not beyond His grace."

A throughline and the backdrop of Sanders' book is her faith and how it has influenced her political career and major life changes, including her 2022 diagnosis with thyroid cancer during her first campaign for governor. Sanders was treated for the cancer successfully, and shortly thereafter won the 2022 gubernatorial election with nearly 63% of the vote.

Despite Sanders sidestepping questions about whether she has 2028 aspirations, some Arkansas political scientists said last week a book tour is often a way for potential presidential hopefuls to test the waters.

Sanders' father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, used the same template ahead of his unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, said Cameron Wimpy, an associate professor of political science at Arkansas State University. Huckabee is now the Trump administration's ambassador to Israel.

"This feels early, but it is hard to see what else, beyond a media career or book sales, explains the timing," Wimpy said. The itinerary tells the story, and that's pretty far from a hometown book signing, he added.

After her stop at the Nixon library, Sanders on Thursday will speak at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.

The book tour also includes stops in Dallas; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and West Palm Beach, Fla.

This story was made possible through donations to the Community Journalism Project . Philanthropic support from the community allows us to expand our local coverage and invest in the stories that shape our state.

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Ella McCarthy covers state politics and the state Supreme Court. Before joining the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she covered Austin City Hall for the Austin American-Statesman, and before that, held a fellowship with ABC News in Washington, D.C., where she covered national politics. A graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, her work has been recognized by the Hearst Foundation, the Missouri Press Association and LION Publishers in the LION local journalism awards. She contributed to the Statesman's coverage of a two-city shooting rampage that won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage.

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