By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For elections to be competitive in Arkansas next year, the minority party must field candidates, and Democrats say they have some, or at least are trying hard to find them.

The party already has a U.S. Senate candidate, Josh Mahony, who was scheduled to kick off his campaign in El Dorado, Fayetteville and Little Rock this Thursday-Saturday. He’s trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, who was kicking off his own campaign at Republican Party headquarters Saturday.

Mahony won only 32.6% running for the 3rd District congressional seat last year against U.S. Rep. Steve Womack. He faces an uphill battle against Cotton.

Actually, he’s scaling a cliff. Cotton is an incumbent Republican and a national figure who can raise whatever money he needs, plus a lot more.

Still, for Democrats it’s worth a shot because they’ll never win anything if they don’t put names on the ballot. In 2016, they failed to compete in three of the four congressional races, leaving those Republican incumbents to debate only Libertarian Party challengers. In 2018, Democrats did at least put up a fight in all the congressional races and the governor’s race.

If nothing else, today’s losing candidate potentially sets the stage for someone else to win tomorrow. Just ask Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who lost three statewide races back when Republicans were the state’s minority party. Remember then?

As for the other congressional races, Michael John Gray, the Democratic Party’s chairman, told me the party has confirmed it has candidates to run in Northwest Arkansas’ 3rd District against Womack, and in south Arkansas’ 4th District against Rep. Bruce Westerman. They’ll announce later.

Several candidates are considering running against Rep. French Hill in central Arkansas’ 2nd District. That’s the race Democrats have the best chance of winning because of its high urban and minority population. In 2018, former state Rep. Clarke Tucker came the closest of any Democratic congressional candidate, winning almost 46%.

Tucker’s strong showing must be encouraging to potential candidates, but he had money, political experience and a compelling life story. He’s already announced he’s running for the state Senate seat being left vacant by Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, who’s leaving office.

I asked Bond if he were considering running against Hill. On vacation with his family, he texted, “I have no plans to run for Congress at this time.”

That would leave eastern Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District, which Gray said is the hardest of the four districts to find a challenger. Gray said there is interest among some in the agriculture community in finding a candidate to run against U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, who has strongly supported President Trump’s trade war that has reduced agricultural sales overseas. But some of those candidates have financial challenges, partly as a result of that trade war, which makes it harder for them to run.

I asked Gray, who represented Woodruff County in the state Legislature until he lost an election in 2018, if he might challenge Crawford. His initial response was that he is not planning to run “at this time.” But he also confirmed he has considered it and is not shutting the door on that race.

At the state legislative level, keep an eye on Benton and Washington counties in Northwest Arkansas, which are becoming more competitive partly because more voters there are out-of-state transplants working for Walmart and its suppliers. Gray said he would be “shocked” if Democrats did not field candidates for all the seats in that corridor, at least on the House side.

The other region to watch is south Arkansas, where Republicans represent a number of districts with large minority populations. Former Democratic Rep. Garry Smith has already said he will challenge outspoken Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado. Other Democrats could enter that race.

Gray said other south Arkansas districts with confirmed though unannounced Democratic challengers include House District 7, now represented by Rep. Sonia Eubanks Barker, R-Smackover; District 8, represented by Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage; and District 3, represented by Rep. Danny Watson, R-Hope.

How many of these Democratic candidacies pan out, and how many races are competitive, remains to be seen. People who plan to run sometimes decide against it. And those not planning to run “at this time” sometimes decide that the time is right after al