David Koon and Brian Chilson are covering the Tom Cotton town hall in Springdale, which is just about to get underway.
The crowd is enormous and seems likely to fill the auditorium. Many came with signs announcing they were not paid and giving their ZIP codes to prove it.
Cotton spoke briefly with reporters beforehand. In answer to one question he compared the crowd response to Tea Party activities following the 2009 election of Barack Obama. He said neither group should be diminished for being organized in their efforts. A good answer. Nobdy ever said the senator wasn’t smart.
I’d like to hear his thoughts on the media as enemy. We know has his own enemy list that precludes providing even routine publicly financed press services to some he finds objectionable.
More later from our team.
But… real people challenged Cotton on health care, Trump and Russia, immigration and other issues. The crowd, despite rows reserved in front for Cotton people, was challenging. Cotton did well in parrying, for which he’ll get points from his people. He had no good answers for the good questions, just generalities. He’s too sure of himself to be moved much politically, but the strong voices are important in the national debate. Any notion that Arkansas, even Northwest Arkansas, is monolithically red was challenged by images seen on TV around the world.