Don’t miss David Koon’s Reporter in the paper this week on the fresh faces in the Democratic party inspired to run for office in Arkansas after the election of President Donald Trump:
With a wave election potentially brewing for next November that could cost Republicans control of Congress, Arkansas candidates for offices from school board to the U.S. House are hoping they can surf that hoped-for tsunami, even in a deep red state. State Rep. Michael John Gray (D-Augusta), the chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said that while the election of Donald Trump and the policies he has put in place has Democrats inspired to run, Democratic candidates he’s talked to are mostly engaged by their repulsion at what goes on in Washington. “It’s not necessarily just Trump,” he said. “It’s the bad policies or the Washington politics of doing nothing and blaming it on the other guy.”
David profiles a number of candidates, including Nicole Clowney, a Fayetteville Democrat running for Arkansas House District 86; Jonathan Crossley of Jacksonville, who is aiming to unseat Republican Rep. Karilyn Brown (R-Sherwood) in House District 41; and Gwendolynn Millen Combs, an Air Force veteran and Little Rock school teacher running to unseat Republican 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill.
Another new face to watch: Kim Snow, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Charlene Fite in District 80, which includes parts of Washington and Crawford counties. Democrats face an uphill climb in northwest Arkansas, although political prognosticators have been wondering for several cycles now whether the demographics may shift enough to turn the area more purple than dead red (outside of the lonely blue island around the Fayetteville campus, not much indication of that so far).
Snow, 46, who previously worked in graphic design and marketing, is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, getting a master’s in communication with a focus in health care communication (she’s set to graduate in May). She teaches Public Speaking at the university and works at the Walton College of Business in the Business Communication Lab.
From her CrowdPac page:
Last year, after the election I was completely disillusioned by the political process, as I’m sure most of you were. About a month later it was the last day of the Public Speaking class that I teach here at the University of Arkansas and I wanted to leave my students with general words of wisdom. So, I told them “I have taught you how to use your voice, now use your voice to change the world.” It was in that moment that I remembered, I too have a voice and a responsibility to change the world.
I am Kim Snow and running for State House of Representatives in District 80 against Charlene Fite. My family has been in Arkansas for 7 generations. My DNA is in these mountains. Like the people of this district I grew up a typical middle-class life, out in the country chasing kittens in a barn, counting cows in the pasture and helping bale hay. I am the daughter of a firefighter and my mother was one of the first female police officers on the streets in the state of Arkansas in the 1970s. We have a tradition of service in my family and I intend to proudly carry that torch all the way to the state capitol in Little Rock.
Happily, you’ll see that Snow has followed the unusual Arkansas state code mandating that candidates announce which generation Arkansans they are.
Here is her campaign Facebook page and her website.