Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former Donald Trump official, is facing criticism over a new campaign advertisement that portrays a young white man as the face of welfare.
Sanders, who is seeking reelection, released the commercial this week while announcing a new welfare-to-work requirement.
The ad follows a young white man named Brad, who is shown spending his days on the couch playing video games.
“Meet Brad. Brad has turned relaxing into a full-time profession,” Sanders says in the advertisement.
“But you? You actually work hard. You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad who just choose not to work.”
She adds: “That’s why I launched a welfare-to-work requirement. Now, more Arkansans are working than ever before. Even Brad!”
The video concludes with Brad wearing a suit and leaving for work. Under the policy, young, able-bodied recipients of public assistance would have to work, attend school or volunteer to continue receiving benefits.
The commercial soon attracted criticism from fellow MAGA supporters, some of whom described it as “anti-white.”
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing criticism over an advertisement that presents a young white man as the face of welfare
The commercial features Brad, a young white man portrayed spending his days playing video games on the couch
“This anti-white ad should be taken down, the comms team fired, and the Governor’s Office issue an apology,” Jack Posobiec, a conservative political activist and close friend of Charlie Kirk, wrote on X.
“We are 35 days out from an election and they are attacking young white men.”
Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh also wrote: “White males are the Republican Party’s voting base, and yet they are the group the Republican Party s**ts on at every possible opportunity.”
“These idiotic cowards don’t even have the guts to criticize groups that will never vote for them anyway. They just never learn.”
Another critic wrote: “This is how Republicans see white men. Quite the message a few weeks from the midterms.”
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A fourth commenter said: “The choice of a white male gamer to be the new ‘welfare queen’ is an amazing sign of the progress we’ve made in this country.”
According to Sanders’ campaign website, the spot is the seventh television advertisement of her 2026 general election campaign. It forms part of a six-figure statewide advertising effort running across television and digital platforms.
Sanders, who previously served as Trump’s press secretary, defended the ad in a follow-up post on X. “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,” she wrote.
“If you are able-bodied, you should not collect welfare simply because you choose not to work. Period.”
Welfare is a broad term for public assistance. In Arkansas, the Department of Human Services offers assistance for food, unemployment programs and health insurance to low-income residents.
Data reviewed by The New York Times from the Arkansas Department of Human Services revealed that most people enrolled in the state’s Medicaid expansion are white.
In August, the data showed that over 60 percent of the roughly 218,000 Medicaid expansion enrollees in the state reported being white.
Only 18 percent reported being black, and 16 percent did not report their ethnicity.
Over three-quarters listed their ages as 18 to 49, and 54 percent are women.
Our News Outlet contacted Sanders’ campaign for comment.
