Category Archives: Elections

GOP will produce Arkansas’ first statewide minority official

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

Arkansas has never elected an African-American statewide official, and when it finally does, he or she likely will be a Republican.

And he or she probably will be someone like Leon Jones.

The state has taken such a sharp turn red-ward in recent years that to be elected to a statewide office, a candidate almost must run as a Republican – much as the Democrats were the default party for a century and a half. That’s why the first African-American official probably will come from that party.

Jones, 47, Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s appointee as executive director of the Fair Housing Commission, is gauging support before making a final decision on running for attorney general in 2022. The current attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, is term-limited. Jones previously served as Hutchinson’s Labor Department director.

If he runs, he’d be Arkansas’ first elected African-American statewide official and also the only African-American Republican currently elected to any position at the state level – unless one is elected in 2020 or alongside him in 2022. The state’s seven constitutional officers and six members of Congress are white Republicans. As of Oct. 8, the 135-member Arkansas Legislature was composed of 102 white Republicans and 33 Democrats, 15 of whom are African-Americans including the recently elected Denise Ennett of Little Rock. Continue reading →

Arkansas gets more of a say for president. Is it worth it?

By Steve Brawner, vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo ID© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Legislators this year permanently moved Arkansas’ presidential primary elections to March, and recently the state starting seeing the maybe-or-not-worth-it results: visits by two mid-tier Democratic presidential candidates.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke both talked guns.

In a press conference Aug. 15, Klobuchar touted universal background checks and barring guns from people convicted of domestic abuse against unmarried partners. As the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s John Moritz reported, she also expressed support for “red flag” laws creating a process for temporarily removing guns from people deemed a threat.

O’Rourke narrowly lost a high-profile Senate race in Texas last year. He entered this campaign with much promise but has yet to catch fire, so he’s trying to create a spark.

He spoke Aug. 17 at the state Democratic Party’s Clinton Dinner, spoke at a gun control rally at the state Capitol, and visited a gun show in Conway. O’Rourke has called for banning military-style assault rifles and instituting a mandatory government buyback program where owners of those weapons who don’t participate would be fined.

O’Rourke formerly represented El Paso, where a mass shooter killed 22 people Aug. 3. Continue reading →

What happens when Texas becomes a purple state?

Democrats, Alabama, blue wave, school boards, Hixson, Breanne, red tide, judicial electionsBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas is now dominated by Republicans, so the outcomes of most of next year’s elections aren’t in doubt here. Our neighbor, Texas – that’s where things are getting interesting.

Texas, formerly one of the country’s reddest states, is turning a shade of purple, with potentially huge electoral consequences for the entire country.

The state has 36 House members, nine times as many as Arkansas. Twenty-three are Republicans and 13 are Democrats, and both senators are Republicans.

But four Republican House members have recently announced they are retiring – three of them in competitive districts, which is no coincidence. The latest, Rep. Kenny Marchant, is leaving office after eight terms in a Dallas district after being re-elected with only 50.6% of the vote last year.

Prior to that, Rep. Will Hurd, the only African-American Republican in the House, and one of two in Congress, announced he is not running for re-election. A critic of President Trump who represents a district on the Mexican border, he was re-elected in 2018 by fewer than 1,000 votes. Continue reading →

Hendren ‘not telling them no’ in 2022 governor’s race

Jim Hendren, tobacco taxBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Could Jim Hendren be Arkansas’ next governor? He thinks so. I told him it would be an uphill climb.

The state Senate president pro tempore from Gravette in Northwest Arkansas said he’s being encouraged to run in 2022. He said supporters approve of what Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Republican legislators are doing. And he’s not discouraging their interest.

“I am beginning to travel some and to meet with some folks and have those discussions about the challenges that we face and the things that we can bring to the table to be successful,” he said while traveling on business Monday. He later added, “I guess what I’m saying is I’m not telling them no at this point. I’m having those discussions.”

Hendren joked during a recent dinner speech at the National Conference of State Legislatures that he was declaring his candidacy – against his sister, state Rep. Gayla McKenzie, R-Gravette, for her office. When the women in the audience chanted her name, he told them he instead would run against his uncle for president.

That would be Hutchinson, who recently said a White House run is “on the table.”

Hendren’s name has been mentioned often concerning the 2022 governor’s race, but not as the first name on the list. Lt. Governor Tim Griffin is definitely running for governor, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is considered a possible opponent. Continue reading →

Cotton vs. Mahony: One had Chick-fil-A

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

If you had no other metric by which to measure Arkansas’ U.S. Senate race, this one might tell you something: One campaign had enough money to cater its kickoff event with Chick-fil-A.

That would be the campaign of U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, the Republican incumbent in an increasingly Republican state.

Cotton has $3.5 million cash on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission. That’s more than enough to feed the hundreds at his campaign kickoff at the Republican Party of Arkansas’ headquarters Saturday.

There, Cotton signaled his campaign themes, as if there were any doubt about what those would be: national security, his natural passion, along with appointing conservative judges, the economy, cutting government, immigration, border security and trade.

Those last three are issues President Trump has brought to the forefront. Republican candidates cannot ignore them; Cotton has fully embraced them. Continue reading →