By Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
The Democratic primary for governor March 3 pits Fred Love, a state senator born in Little Rock, against Supha Xayprasith-Mays, who immigrated to Fort Smith from Laos at age 5.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders awaits the winner in the November general election, along with Libertarian candidate Colt Shelby.
State Sen. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, 51, currently represents part of his hometown. He served 12 years in the state House starting in 2011 before moving to the Senate.
Health care, public education and economic development would be his priorities if elected.
Love wants to extend the state’s Medicaid coverage for qualifying new mothers from the current 60 days to 12 months. Arkansas is one of two states along with Wisconsin that does not cover those mothers for the full year.
“That’s the least that we can do,” he said. “I mean, we’re talking about a mom’s life. We’re talking about a child’s life.”
Love opposes the educational freedom accounts included in Sanders’ 2023 LEARNS Act. The EFAs give families public dollars for private and homeschooling expenses. He said they are draining resources that would go to public schools.
“If you want to educate a workforce, guess what? It’s not coming from a private school,” he said. “It’s coming from a public school system. People do not locate businesses based on how good their private schools are. They locate businesses based on how good the public schools are. So those are the things that I’m fighting for.”
HIs other priority is economic development, which he said Arkansas does well in central and northwest Arkansas but not so well in other parts of the state. He would set up regional economic hubs like the Port of Little Rock.
He opposes Sanders’ proposed 3,000-bed prison, saying he would not build a prison at all. Instead, he would invest that money in economic development and other projects.
Outside of his legislative career, Love has worked for the Arkansas Foodbank and for Pulaski County on housing and economic development projects.
He’s been married to his college sweetheart, ShaRhonda Love, for 25 years. She is running for the Senate seat he currently holds. They have two children.
Life took Xayprasith-Mays on a very different path to the Arkansas ballot. Her mother, Phat, brought her to Fort Smith from Laos when she was five years old along with her three sisters. The move came after Xayprasith-Mays’ father, an intelligence officer, disappeared in Thailand while on a business trip. Xayprasith-Mays speaks English, Thai and Laos fluently and has partial fluency in several other languages.
Xayprasith-Mays became a Walmart executive overseeing personnel in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. She later opened two Thai restaurants and a fashion store in Bentonville. She now operates a media company.
“Running a state, it’s like running a business,” she said.
This is her second race for governor. Four years ago, she won 5.37% of the vote in the Democratic primary.
Xayprasith-Mays calls herself a “peopletician.”
“This is a human race campaign for me,” she said. “It’s not about the party, the politics. It’s about the people. Like Walmart, what I learned from all my retail experiences, the customer is your boss. So the people are my boss. I am not their boss.”
Like Love, she opposes the LEARNS Act’s educational freedom accounts. She said the EFAs only help families who can already send their children to private schools.
“So, basically, it’s extra money for those that could afford it,” she said. “I think that taking your kids to private school is a choice that the state, that the taxpayers shouldn’t be forced (to support).”
The mother of four said she would provide all students a free lunch so as not to single out lower-income students, of which she was one growing up. Arkansas already provides free breakfasts under a law championed by Sanders that lawmakers passed last year.
Xayprasith-Mays also opposes building a new prison. Instead, the focus should be on reducing the prison population and on reducing the recidivism rate where inmates return to incarceration, she said.
The winner will face a massive fundraising deficit compared to Sanders. While the governor had about $5.5 million on hand as of her most recent quarterly campaign finance report, Love had raised about $87,000 and had about $4,000 on hand. Xayprasith-Mays is self-funding her campaign save for a $2,000 donation from a friend.
Regardless, neither Love nor Xayprasith-Mays can compete in November unless they win the primary. Voting continues until March 3.
Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 21 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.