A governor. A croissant shop. And the same playbook we’ve seen before.
Last Friday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat down for lunch with two other moms at The Croissanterie, a bakery in Little Rock. She had her State Police security detail with her — standard for any governor. She ate her meal. She paid her bill. She tipped.
And then she was asked to leave.
According to the governor’s office, the restaurant’s owner approached a member of her security detail and said her presence was making employees feel “threatened and uncomfortable because of her political views.” As the group stood to leave, a man near the staff reportedly yelled at the governor and made an obscene hand gesture in her direction.
The Croissanterie tells a slightly different version. They say the word “threatened” was never used — just “uncomfortable.” They point to their 90-minute table policy. They say the man with the hand gesture was a customer, not an employee.
But here’s what both sides agree on: the governor of Arkansas was asked to conclude her visit at a restaurant because of who she is and what she believes.
The restaurant’s own statement makes this clear. They acknowledged that allowing her to stay “risked being perceived as a lack of support for the community that makes up the majority of our team.” They didn’t say she was rude. They didn’t say she caused a disturbance. They said her presence was the problem.
We’ve Seen This Before
If this feels familiar, it should.
In 2018, Sanders — then serving as White House Press Secretary — was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. The owner was explicit about her reasons: she objected to Sanders’ role in the Trump administration.
Sanders left politely. She tweeted about it. And then she went back to work.
The Red Hen? It became a national flashpoint. Yelp reviews flooded in from both sides. The restaurant became a symbol — not of brave resistance, but of a culture that had decided certain political beliefs disqualify you from sitting down and eating a sandwich.
The Red Hen closed its doors at the end of 2023 and rebranded under a new name.
Sanders, meanwhile, went home to Arkansas and was elected governor.
The Pattern Is Bigger Than One Restaurant
Here’s the thing: The Croissanterie is a small bakery. This isn’t Disney or Nike or the NFL making billion-dollar decisions that affect millions of families. This is a local business that started as a food truck.
But the pattern is exactly the same.
A corporation — or in this case, a business — decides that conservative values are unwelcome. Not because of anything the person did. Not because of any disruption or policy violation. Simply because of what they believe.
Disney did it when their executives celebrated a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” in children’s programming and fought legislation that gave parents more control over what their young children are taught.
Nike did it when they chose Colin Kaepernick — a man who knelt against the American flag — as the face of their brand, then pulled a patriotic sneaker because he objected to the Betsy Ross flag.
Ben & Jerry’s did it when their founders actively campaigned to eliminate qualified immunity for police officers and funded organizations that want to defund law enforcement.
Target did it when they stocked gender ideology books for two-year-olds in the children’s aisle and positioned them at the front of stores where families couldn’t miss them.
The NFL did it when they chose a halftime performer who had publicly called for the removal of ICE, performed entirely in Spanish at America’s biggest sporting event, and never once displayed the American flag.
The venue changes. The industry changes. The specific issue changes. But the message is always the same: your values aren’t welcome here.
Why This Matters for You
You’re probably not the governor of Arkansas. You probably don’t have a State Police detail. But you’ve felt this.
You’ve felt it when a company you’ve supported for years suddenly tells you — through their advertising, their hiring practices, their public statements — that your values are the problem.
You’ve felt it when you realize your purchase is funding an agenda you never signed up for.
You’ve felt it when you want to say something but aren’t sure what to do, where to go, or whether your voice even matters.
It matters.
That’s why Citizen Pushback exists.
We don’t organize protests. We don’t run boycott campaigns. We give you something simpler and more powerful: a direct line to the people who need to hear from you.
Every campaign on our platform gives you a pre-written email — addressed to the right executives, at the right companies, about the right issues. You can edit it, personalize it, or send it as-is. It takes less than 60 seconds. And it lands in a real inbox, from a real person, with a real name attached.
That’s not a hashtag. That’s not a yard sign. That’s a consumer exercising their right to be heard.
What Happens When Enough People Speak Up
Corporations don’t change because of one email. They change because of a thousand. Because of ten thousand. Because the people who fund their revenue finally make it clear: we’re watching, and we have options.
The Croissanterie will weather this news cycle. They’ll probably see a surge of supportive customers from the other side of the aisle — that’s already happening. And then the story will fade.
But the companies on our platform — the ones making deliberate, repeated, corporate-level decisions to push political agendas on American families — those are the ones where your voice moves the needle. Because those companies answer to shareholders. They answer to quarterly earnings. And they answer to the millions of American consumers who fund their bottom line.
Ready to Make Your Voice Count?
Pick a company. Send a message. It takes 60 seconds.
The next time a corporation tells you your values aren’t welcome, don’t just shake your head. Push back.
Citizen Pushback — Your Voice. Their Bottom Line.