Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubles down on ad portraying welfare cheat as 20-something white man

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has come out backing her ad showing a welfare cheat as a 20-something white man. She apparently believes that there is a prevalence of white, 20-something men who are welfare fraudsters in the state of Arkansas, where less than 8% of people are on welfare.

"Some critics online don't like my welfare work requirement ad. Next thing you know they’ll say I should have used cookies instead of cheese balls. If you are able-bodied you should not collect welfare simply because you choose not to work. Period," she said, instructing people to watch the ad.
 

Human Events Daily's Jack Posobiec weighed in, saying, "Governor, I say this with all due respect, fire your comms team immediately." 

The ad portrays a young white man playing games in the dark while eating junk food, while Sanders opines on her welfare-to-work program, which conservatives typically support. The conclusion of the ad is the young man heading off to work with the caption "You Win."

Statistics show that most of those who are non-working while using government benefits in Arkansas are elderly. Black Arkansans in the state use welfare disproportionately to the population, with at least 22 percent of households taking advantage of welfare benefits. But Sanders chose specifically to target young men.

These are the same young men who have low unemployment rates in her state and the highest support for Republicans, her party. Despite these men being a strong tax base in Arkansas, she chose to target them for her fury about welfare fraud and demand that they go back to work—meanwhile, they're already at work.

A serious and concerted effort has been made since the 2020 election to reengage young men, who have felt shut out of opportunities in the United States as government programs, agencies, and institutions have sought to diversify by pushing white men and men in general to the back of the line for education, jobs, and training.