There are two ways of looking at last week’s speaker of the House election in Washington – Rep. Bruce Westerman’s way, and Rep. Steve Womack’s way. Both are valid.
Westerman and Womack along with Arkansas’ other representatives, Reps. French Hill and Rick Crawford, were strong supporters of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bid. They all stuck with him through 15 votes over four days until he finally was elected over the strong opposition of about 20 conservatives.
Westerman, a close ally of McCarthy, gave the nominating speech on the 15th vote that finally settled the matter. Afterwards, his office released one of those statements that generally belongs at the end of a news story, but it’s worth repeating in part here. Continue reading Westerman, Womack both right about McCarthy vote→
The Libertarian challenger to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton released a poll Oct. 10 showing he trailed Cotton only 49% to 38%, with 13% undecided. Again, that’s Harrington’s poll, and we’ll need to see other polls from independent sources, but it did get him some attention.
Also, Harrington is the only challenger after the Democrat dropped out hours after the filing period ended. Libertarians haven’t really cracked the 3% threshold of statewide support in Arkansas, but Democrats generally run close to 40%. It’s likely Harrington is winning their anti-Cotton vote by default.
The poll numbers gained Harrington some attention, and he’s been raising a little money lately – around $40,000 total, his campaign said. It’s certainly nowhere near Cotton’s millions, but he could afford to run a poll.
All the state’s other Republican congressmen participated in their debates. That includes the two who are safely headed toward re-election in races contested by both Democrats and Libertarians. Continue reading Cotton’s absence gave Harrington center stage→
Libertarian candidate Ricky Harrington trails U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, 49-38%, according to a poll commissioned by the Harrington campaign.
Thirteen percent were undecided. The poll of 600 likely voters by American Research Group conducted late last week had a margin of error of plus-minus 4%, the Harrington campaign said.
Harrington is Cotton’s sole challenger because the only Democratic to file, Josh Mahony, dropped out of the race hours after the filing period closed. An independent candidate, Dan Whitfield, tried without success to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
He’s picking up the protest vote that would have gone to Mahony or another Democrat.
Harrington reported raising $5,120.49 as of June 30 in his most recent filing report with the Federal Election Commission. Howington said there has been a significant increase in donations in the last few weeks.
Cotton, meanwhile, had raised almost $10 million, including transfers from other committees, and had $6 million on hand as of June 30.
Harrington’s press secretary, Andy Howington, said, “We are hopeful for an ‘October Surprise’ as more people are introduced to Mr. Harrington’s campaign in these last few weeks. The uncertainty in this race, coupled with the results of this poll, provide us a vision for a path to victory. We will work hard to court these undecided voters, and maybe even take some from Senator Cotton in the process. No one expected us to be here.”
A debate between the candidates by Arkansas PBS is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday, but only Harrington is scheduled to appear. Arkansas PBS will livestream Harrington’s appearance here and here. It will air it at 7 p.m.
Is Arkansas “the reddest state not only in the South but in the entire nation”? That’s what state Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb said during his part of the roll call vote at the Republican National Convention.
Twelve years ago, that statement was unimaginable. Arkansas had been dominated by Democrats since the Civil War and had produced the nation’s previous president.
Now? All six members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, its seven constitutional officers, and three-fourths of its state Legislature are Republicans. In the 2016 election, Trump beat Hillary Clinton, Arkansas’ first lady for 12 years back when Arkansas was one of the nation’s bluest states, by a 61-34% margin.
Arkansas still has many Democratic elected officials at the county level who have not yet retired, switched parties or lost. But Webb didn’t say Arkansas was the most Republican state. He called it the reddest, which is more of a national and state description and speaks to voter outlooks and trends.
