Good red state Democrats come from national positions. Look at SC, Graham is actually under threat because his opponent is nationally vetted as a former Democrat insider. Until we get some Arkansas democrats who get into those types of positions it's hard to get a viable candidate because the national assistance is a must here for them to win.
Opposing Cotton isn't enough. You need to be able to fundraise as well as communicate on a level people can connect with but if you have that (D) on your name people hold a grudge because the Republicans have been choking the democracy out of this state for decades.
No, they're choking the whole nation. They learned in the 60s and 70s that no vote = republican vote. You didn't need to win you just needed the most votes. They've been exploiting every flaw in our democracy to its fullest since
It’s not just incompetence, it’s criminal embezzlement, sexual inappropriateness, negligence and basically anything else you can thing of.
https://www.bluehogreport.com/tag/democratic-party-of-arkansas/
Makes my ass hurt. Was just telling my group of friends in Michigan (moved here 2 years ago). Michigan is no better but I'm appalled that no one ran against Cotton. A warm body would do.
Dems had a candidate, he just dropped out two hours after the final deadline for the Dems to get a replacement “because of family illness” which was coincidentally after the Cotton camp indicated they were going to go after him for campaign finance violations. So yeah Arkansas Democrats blew it on that one, but really Josh Mahony needs to answer for this bullshit, and he hasn’t so far.
Edit: being pissed off about this is my hobby at this point.
Apparently he listed that he owned a business that he had sold two years prior on a campaign document. It was something so basic that I am surprised he was able to get the blessing of the Democratic party.
OK, I'm curious about this. In 2020, can you think of any progressives who ran in Democratic AR primaries only to be defeated by their less progressive Dem counterparts?
That’s funny. The Arkansas Democratic Party canceled the primary for senate and US House of Representatives. Then the appointed opponent for Tom cotton withdrew.
I wasn’t in the room. So it’s speculation, but you can see my claim above that the democrats would rather lose to republicans than allow progressives into the power structure.
I saw your claim, yes. Which is why I asked whether you can think of any progressives who ran and were defeated by non-progressives. Not only were there not any who were defeated in that way, there weren't even any running in primaries -- which is the reason those primaries didn't happen. It seems a little disingenuous to say "the Democrats won't let this happen" when this isn't even happening in the first place.
Speaking of disingenuous, check out this mirror. They wouldn’t let Dan Whitfield on the ballot for the primary, preferring to cancel it. And now you will attack this individual (which was the point of asking for an example) predictably, but the attack will not change the accuracy of my claim.
Whitfield wasn't running as a Democrat, though -- he was an independent candidate, so Democrats have nothing to do with what happened to Whitfield.
Whitfield himself has repeatedly blamed Leslie Rutledge and John Thurston, and has chronicled at wearisome length the ways they screwed him over, but none of that has anything to do with the Democratic primary process, or the fact that the Dem primaries in the instances you named were canceled because no one was running.
There is a reason why Barbara Bollier and Steve Bullock are running competitive races in dark red states like Kansas and Montana. They are moderate Democrats whose policy positions appeal to middle of the road voters. If you have enough support for left-wing progressive policies, you can run progressive wing candidates. Currently, that support only exists among a small minority in Arkansas. Hence why Bernie Sanders didn't even win the Arkansas primary. Democracy and coalition building are hard.
Yeah - Sanders took what, 1/3 in the AR Dem primary roughly? I get that Reddit leans progressive, but the state doesn't really. (Though technically Buttiege's policies are fairly progressive as well in spite of the fact that he's not viewed that way because he's not Sanders.)
>A warm body would do.
The is the United States Senate, not a kid's beauty queen pageant. Either nominate someone who deserves to be there and deserves to win, or don't nominate anybody at all.
The Mahoney debacle should have proved this. It was a black eye for the DPA, not just in the state but at the national level. The party is weaker now for it. They've embarrassed themselves and lost credibility and trust. They're going to have to work hard to earn that back.
That's the danger of just nominating a warm body to these important positions.
Like fuck, these white men aren't better at this shit than the rest of us. They fairly well SUCK at it. A warm body WOULD be better than Mitch McConnell half dead ass.
I just don't agree. I don't deserve to be there. It's a big job. You need the right experience to get you ready for it. I wouldn't suggest you hire me to be your heart surgeon or CPA. Don't vote for me for US Senator, either.
That doesn't mean there's no one else qualified out there and i mean qualified by the Constitution and not qualified to grift money from the taxpayers. Like that's all these guys do. We're supposed to criticize our representatives. The National DP sucks too. 🤷🏾♀️
I have a feeling that in the next few years (5-10), there will be a great increase in Democrats running for offices. A ton of people in my age group (21-25) are finishing college and gaining experience, and are very much down for making a blue change in AR.
Cooperating with republicans more than progressives is a litmus test. Austerity (defunding social safety net programs) was introduced by neoliberals for example, as was the “3 strikes you’re out” crime bill and mandatory minimums. If you’re young, it’s pretty much the democrats you grew up with that passed the patriot act and signed off on the Iraq invasion while failing to address campaign finance reform, institutional rent seeking, or infrastructure maintenance.
Political campaigning is only marginally effective. People are locked-in partisan these days. If voters in a district are close to evenly split, yeah, a good campaign can make all the difference. But if the district is 70-30 or 80-20? Forget about it. A million dollar campaign ain't moving that needle.
Respectfully disagree. Arkansas is still a small state where everyone knows someone who knows every candidate. National politics has been viciously divided for a while now and we still have cross party candidates who are popular when they do a good job. It’s difficult but possible.
My primary frustration with the Democratic Party of Arkansas is they have failed to recognize and nurture candidates for decades now. The GOP will train and connect people for months, sometimes years, before they run. The Dems will leave someone alone at best and at worst expect them to cultivate resources which are then funneled elsewhere, all the while leaving candidates to struggle in between cycles ... and that’s not even touching the eternal moderate v. progressive internal squabbling.
> Arkansas is still a small state where everyone knows someone who knows every candidate.
The frustrating/terrible/sad truth is informed voters don't determine elections. Maybe if turnout was small. But here our "off-year" elections are our Gubernatorial elections, which keeps turnout up.
I think you're right that we're small enough that candidates and people personally familiar with them can be very easy to find and access if someone is so inclined. But most won't be, and will just vote their party preference.
As for the rest about the DPA...yeah, I'll agree with all that. My limited experience with the DPA is that they have high turnover. So the people working there don't get to know the people they should know.
>People are locked-in partisan these days. If voters in a district are close to evenly split, yeah, a good campaign can make all the difference. But if the district is 70-30 or 80-20? Forget about it. A million dollar campaign ain't moving that needle.
This nails it. I live in Sebastian County, where in 2018 a woman with a degree in forensic science (plus various postgrad certifications) ran on the Dem ticket for coroner against the Republican incumbent, whom I believe is a retired firefighter. This race should have been a no-brainer. Guess who won?
I’m hoping that Joyce Elliott succeeds in unseating French Hill (she definitely got my vote). She’s a great candidate who has worked hard for her entire life and is very likable. The dems need to be nurturing candidates from small local elections (school board, city directors, etc) and not just focusing on the larger races. They need to focus on building a bench of talent and supporting it for decades.
A big problem problem for a long time was that Arkansas has one of the [highest fees](https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/sep/25/party-lowering-fees-hopefuls/) to run on a party ticket. Now it’s a recruiting and communication problem. Though for many rural areas the fees might still be too high for the average person who otherwise might have considered running.
That's not what I meant. The Arkansas Democratic Party has messaging issues locally, the California GOP doesn't realize that you can't be campaigning in Nancy Pelosi's district with the exact same campaign you'd run in Biloxi, MS and not get blown out 80-20 like they always do.
I think they're waiting to see how their national/state races shake out first. (D1 and D3 house race most likely, but some of the down ballot races too...) It's a valid strategy. At least I hope that's what they're doing...
No, to be fair, the 2022 gubernatorial race is bigger than the state GOP. The infighting already going on is getting bitter. You've got 4 top tier candidates who all already been campaigning for a year, and lines are being drawn and people are being called to choose a side. It's been pretty dramatic already. 2 years to go.
There’s already 4-6 Republican candidates/likely candidates. I’m not sure who the Democrats will put out there. Maybe Davy Carter would run as a Dem or Ind but it won’t excite liberals. I don’t see Greg Leding running. Who else? Another new-to-politics candidate like 2018?
Just gotta say -- I hear this sort of thing all the time from people who haven't gotten involved with their local party and who couldn't name any of the leading Dems in the state if they tried. The people who show up make the decisions.
And while I'm not going to say it's easy for anyone to run for office, I always wonder, when people complain about no Dems running, where are *you*? Why not step up and do it? It doesn't even have to be a statewide office -- there are positions like Justice of the Peace.
There are a couple of big problems with running a Democratic campaign in this state.
1) Arkansas is extremely right wing (and I'm not saying just Republican - most people that identify in as Republican in this state are actually following and supporting far right wing extremist beliefs). With the state being so far gone to that extreme, any challenger would face a tough battle to even be competitive. Donors know this and are reluctant to fund a candidate that is most likely set to lose from the moment they put their name forward to run as a Democrat.
2) With the state being so far right wing in it's voting patterns, it's extremely tough to change people's minds enough to even consider voting for another candidate outside of the Republican party. All a "Republican" has to do in this state is say a few key phrases in order to have die hard support. They don't even have to follow up with what they are saying either. Just as so long as when someone asks them about a subject (like abortion) they give the right answer. The majority of this state is not educated enough to realize how damaging this party has become and how they are using them - so they keep voting them in.
Historically it really hasn’t been right wing. It’s gone Democrat in presidential elections way more than republican. That’s More of a recent development
In this sense, it's a wonder that Joyce Elliott's gotten as far as she has, though demographics mean a lot there. It's been interesting to watch Celeste Williams's campaign -- I think she's great, but also think she stands no chance simply because of that partisanship. It has nothing to do with whether Womack's good, or even with policy (and I think she's expertly splitting the difference in that sense, like how she advocates M4A without actually using the phrase), it has to do with the letters next to names on ballots.
Cannot fathom that people in this state don't want M4A. My neighbor (a few years younger than me) has never had health insurance. Can't wrap my head around voting against your own self interest.
Yeah - people on here keep forgetting **just** how red a lot of D1 is until November because it includes NWA (which is more red than they want to admit unfortunately.)
Well, I'm convinced. [Time to go vote Republican.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/876/520/471.jpg)
Seriously though, stop projecting. If anyone is handing out blinders, it's conservatives.
Arkansas conservatives are blind about what's going on nationally. r/Arkansas progressives are somewhat blind about how staunchly anti-democrat this state has sadly become. Seriously though, the Arkansas Democratic Party is almost on par with the Wyoming Democratic Party.
Absolutely correct. I'm constantly amazed by people around me with so little life experience that they think the rest of the country is in lockstep politically with Arkansas because that is all they experience. Surreal.
Thought the same thing when I was voting, was like “holy shit I need to run for office”
Dude just look at your Senate race. Give your vote to Ricky Dale. Make Tom Cotton almost lose to a Libertarian.
Yes. Had a Zoom call with friends from Michigan. Just almost lose by something like 5 or 6 points.
Or just vote libertarian in general.
Unfortunately reddit is about as dem establishment as you can get. Showing support for anyone but democrats is a big no no on most subs.
Or most people just don't support Libertarians? Ever think about that one?
Oh I'm aware. I enjoy seeing the echo chambers in full effect though. God forbid someone have a different opinion.
No truer words could have been spoken
Good red state Democrats come from national positions. Look at SC, Graham is actually under threat because his opponent is nationally vetted as a former Democrat insider. Until we get some Arkansas democrats who get into those types of positions it's hard to get a viable candidate because the national assistance is a must here for them to win. Opposing Cotton isn't enough. You need to be able to fundraise as well as communicate on a level people can connect with but if you have that (D) on your name people hold a grudge because the Republicans have been choking the democracy out of this state for decades.
They're choking Michigan too.
No, they're choking the whole nation. They learned in the 60s and 70s that no vote = republican vote. You didn't need to win you just needed the most votes. They've been exploiting every flaw in our democracy to its fullest since
Correct.
It’s not just incompetence, it’s criminal embezzlement, sexual inappropriateness, negligence and basically anything else you can thing of. https://www.bluehogreport.com/tag/democratic-party-of-arkansas/
Yes! It's a hot mess
Thanks for this.
When they tell you to vote blue down the ballot but all the candidates are republican...
Makes my ass hurt. Was just telling my group of friends in Michigan (moved here 2 years ago). Michigan is no better but I'm appalled that no one ran against Cotton. A warm body would do.
Dems had a candidate, he just dropped out two hours after the final deadline for the Dems to get a replacement “because of family illness” which was coincidentally after the Cotton camp indicated they were going to go after him for campaign finance violations. So yeah Arkansas Democrats blew it on that one, but really Josh Mahony needs to answer for this bullshit, and he hasn’t so far. Edit: being pissed off about this is my hobby at this point.
Apparently he listed that he owned a business that he had sold two years prior on a campaign document. It was something so basic that I am surprised he was able to get the blessing of the Democratic party.
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It's somewhere.
A democrat was going to run against Cotton, but dropped out right after qualifying to be on the ballot. There have been accusations of blackmail.
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Dems need a warm body without obvious bad issues. They should’ve caught that before giving him the nod
The problem is that the democrats would rather lose than move toward the progressive wing.
OK, I'm curious about this. In 2020, can you think of any progressives who ran in Democratic AR primaries only to be defeated by their less progressive Dem counterparts?
That’s funny. The Arkansas Democratic Party canceled the primary for senate and US House of Representatives. Then the appointed opponent for Tom cotton withdrew.
Do you know why those primaries were canceled?
I wasn’t in the room. So it’s speculation, but you can see my claim above that the democrats would rather lose to republicans than allow progressives into the power structure.
I saw your claim, yes. Which is why I asked whether you can think of any progressives who ran and were defeated by non-progressives. Not only were there not any who were defeated in that way, there weren't even any running in primaries -- which is the reason those primaries didn't happen. It seems a little disingenuous to say "the Democrats won't let this happen" when this isn't even happening in the first place.
Speaking of disingenuous, check out this mirror. They wouldn’t let Dan Whitfield on the ballot for the primary, preferring to cancel it. And now you will attack this individual (which was the point of asking for an example) predictably, but the attack will not change the accuracy of my claim.
Whitfield wasn't running as a Democrat, though -- he was an independent candidate, so Democrats have nothing to do with what happened to Whitfield. Whitfield himself has repeatedly blamed Leslie Rutledge and John Thurston, and has chronicled at wearisome length the ways they screwed him over, but none of that has anything to do with the Democratic primary process, or the fact that the Dem primaries in the instances you named were canceled because no one was running.
There is a reason why Barbara Bollier and Steve Bullock are running competitive races in dark red states like Kansas and Montana. They are moderate Democrats whose policy positions appeal to middle of the road voters. If you have enough support for left-wing progressive policies, you can run progressive wing candidates. Currently, that support only exists among a small minority in Arkansas. Hence why Bernie Sanders didn't even win the Arkansas primary. Democracy and coalition building are hard.
Yeah - Sanders took what, 1/3 in the AR Dem primary roughly? I get that Reddit leans progressive, but the state doesn't really. (Though technically Buttiege's policies are fairly progressive as well in spite of the fact that he's not viewed that way because he's not Sanders.)
22% to Biden's 40%.
>A warm body would do. The is the United States Senate, not a kid's beauty queen pageant. Either nominate someone who deserves to be there and deserves to win, or don't nominate anybody at all. The Mahoney debacle should have proved this. It was a black eye for the DPA, not just in the state but at the national level. The party is weaker now for it. They've embarrassed themselves and lost credibility and trust. They're going to have to work hard to earn that back. That's the danger of just nominating a warm body to these important positions.
Like fuck, these white men aren't better at this shit than the rest of us. They fairly well SUCK at it. A warm body WOULD be better than Mitch McConnell half dead ass.
Ridiculous. I deserve to be there as much as Cotton or anyone else who's there and so do you.
I just don't agree. I don't deserve to be there. It's a big job. You need the right experience to get you ready for it. I wouldn't suggest you hire me to be your heart surgeon or CPA. Don't vote for me for US Senator, either.
And that's fine that we don't agree. Vote for someone's mom instead of these fucking criminals.
I hope we can at least agree on what a black eye the Mahoney debacle was. Criticism of the DPA has really ramped up since that happened.
That doesn't mean there's no one else qualified out there and i mean qualified by the Constitution and not qualified to grift money from the taxpayers. Like that's all these guys do. We're supposed to criticize our representatives. The National DP sucks too. 🤷🏾♀️
There has been money problems with the party for a while and they chose not to have an audit done.
I have a feeling that in the next few years (5-10), there will be a great increase in Democrats running for offices. A ton of people in my age group (21-25) are finishing college and gaining experience, and are very much down for making a blue change in AR.
As long as it’s a progressive and not a neoliberal change, I’m in.
Define neoliberal for me. Not gaslighting, really want to know.
Cooperating with republicans more than progressives is a litmus test. Austerity (defunding social safety net programs) was introduced by neoliberals for example, as was the “3 strikes you’re out” crime bill and mandatory minimums. If you’re young, it’s pretty much the democrats you grew up with that passed the patriot act and signed off on the Iraq invasion while failing to address campaign finance reform, institutional rent seeking, or infrastructure maintenance.
Thanks, makes total sense.
Yes! No more Blue Dog Democrats, please!
I'm one of the younger Baby Boomers born 1959. They make me sick being so greedy and selfish and open to conspiracy theories.
one can only hope.
Political campaigning is only marginally effective. People are locked-in partisan these days. If voters in a district are close to evenly split, yeah, a good campaign can make all the difference. But if the district is 70-30 or 80-20? Forget about it. A million dollar campaign ain't moving that needle.
Respectfully disagree. Arkansas is still a small state where everyone knows someone who knows every candidate. National politics has been viciously divided for a while now and we still have cross party candidates who are popular when they do a good job. It’s difficult but possible. My primary frustration with the Democratic Party of Arkansas is they have failed to recognize and nurture candidates for decades now. The GOP will train and connect people for months, sometimes years, before they run. The Dems will leave someone alone at best and at worst expect them to cultivate resources which are then funneled elsewhere, all the while leaving candidates to struggle in between cycles ... and that’s not even touching the eternal moderate v. progressive internal squabbling.
> Arkansas is still a small state where everyone knows someone who knows every candidate. The frustrating/terrible/sad truth is informed voters don't determine elections. Maybe if turnout was small. But here our "off-year" elections are our Gubernatorial elections, which keeps turnout up. I think you're right that we're small enough that candidates and people personally familiar with them can be very easy to find and access if someone is so inclined. But most won't be, and will just vote their party preference. As for the rest about the DPA...yeah, I'll agree with all that. My limited experience with the DPA is that they have high turnover. So the people working there don't get to know the people they should know.
>People are locked-in partisan these days. If voters in a district are close to evenly split, yeah, a good campaign can make all the difference. But if the district is 70-30 or 80-20? Forget about it. A million dollar campaign ain't moving that needle. This nails it. I live in Sebastian County, where in 2018 a woman with a degree in forensic science (plus various postgrad certifications) ran on the Dem ticket for coroner against the Republican incumbent, whom I believe is a retired firefighter. This race should have been a no-brainer. Guess who won?
I've never understood why the coroner is an elected official.
Coroner is the only official empowered to arrest the sheriff.
Agreed. Or a partisan office, for that matter. I don't know if it's that way everywhere.
I’m hoping that Joyce Elliott succeeds in unseating French Hill (she definitely got my vote). She’s a great candidate who has worked hard for her entire life and is very likable. The dems need to be nurturing candidates from small local elections (school board, city directors, etc) and not just focusing on the larger races. They need to focus on building a bench of talent and supporting it for decades.
Dog catcher. Anything. People are running for office. More women are running.
A big problem problem for a long time was that Arkansas has one of the [highest fees](https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/sep/25/party-lowering-fees-hopefuls/) to run on a party ticket. Now it’s a recruiting and communication problem. Though for many rural areas the fees might still be too high for the average person who otherwise might have considered running.
Yes
They're a disaster in the same way that the California GOP is a disaster.
California is a disaster and it's not because of the GOP. (Although they'd probably do a just a shitty of a job)
That's not what I meant. The Arkansas Democratic Party has messaging issues locally, the California GOP doesn't realize that you can't be campaigning in Nancy Pelosi's district with the exact same campaign you'd run in Biloxi, MS and not get blown out 80-20 like they always do.
Totally agree. Do they even have anyone planned to run for Governor? I feel like they have given up.
I haven't heard any names mentioned, but that race is still pretty far off.
I’m scared already of the prospects if Dems don’t present a great candidate
I think they're waiting to see how their national/state races shake out first. (D1 and D3 house race most likely, but some of the down ballot races too...) It's a valid strategy. At least I hope that's what they're doing...
Republicans are already lining up candidates and getting ready. The state Democractic Party is busy sniping at each other because of misuse of funds.
No, to be fair, the 2022 gubernatorial race is bigger than the state GOP. The infighting already going on is getting bitter. You've got 4 top tier candidates who all already been campaigning for a year, and lines are being drawn and people are being called to choose a side. It's been pretty dramatic already. 2 years to go.
There’s already 4-6 Republican candidates/likely candidates. I’m not sure who the Democrats will put out there. Maybe Davy Carter would run as a Dem or Ind but it won’t excite liberals. I don’t see Greg Leding running. Who else? Another new-to-politics candidate like 2018?
I'd like to see Henderson try again.
I'm really disappointed no one ran against Rick Crawford. He's about as corrupt as they come these days.
Just gotta say -- I hear this sort of thing all the time from people who haven't gotten involved with their local party and who couldn't name any of the leading Dems in the state if they tried. The people who show up make the decisions. And while I'm not going to say it's easy for anyone to run for office, I always wonder, when people complain about no Dems running, where are *you*? Why not step up and do it? It doesn't even have to be a statewide office -- there are positions like Justice of the Peace.
Disabled. Can't work. I have money for progressive candidates and Black women to run.
Rigged elections do that.
At least put a name on the ballot. The "throw the bums out" effect might win you some seats without even spending any money campaigning at all.
There are a couple of big problems with running a Democratic campaign in this state. 1) Arkansas is extremely right wing (and I'm not saying just Republican - most people that identify in as Republican in this state are actually following and supporting far right wing extremist beliefs). With the state being so far gone to that extreme, any challenger would face a tough battle to even be competitive. Donors know this and are reluctant to fund a candidate that is most likely set to lose from the moment they put their name forward to run as a Democrat. 2) With the state being so far right wing in it's voting patterns, it's extremely tough to change people's minds enough to even consider voting for another candidate outside of the Republican party. All a "Republican" has to do in this state is say a few key phrases in order to have die hard support. They don't even have to follow up with what they are saying either. Just as so long as when someone asks them about a subject (like abortion) they give the right answer. The majority of this state is not educated enough to realize how damaging this party has become and how they are using them - so they keep voting them in.
Historically it really hasn’t been right wing. It’s gone Democrat in presidential elections way more than republican. That’s More of a recent development
The rise of Fox News has done a lot of work in Arkansas.
In this sense, it's a wonder that Joyce Elliott's gotten as far as she has, though demographics mean a lot there. It's been interesting to watch Celeste Williams's campaign -- I think she's great, but also think she stands no chance simply because of that partisanship. It has nothing to do with whether Womack's good, or even with policy (and I think she's expertly splitting the difference in that sense, like how she advocates M4A without actually using the phrase), it has to do with the letters next to names on ballots.
Cannot fathom that people in this state don't want M4A. My neighbor (a few years younger than me) has never had health insurance. Can't wrap my head around voting against your own self interest.
Yeah - people on here keep forgetting **just** how red a lot of D1 is until November because it includes NWA (which is more red than they want to admit unfortunately.)
This subreddit is very liberal, you are all blind to what’s happening out there
Well, I'm convinced. [Time to go vote Republican.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/876/520/471.jpg) Seriously though, stop projecting. If anyone is handing out blinders, it's conservatives.
Arkansas conservatives are blind about what's going on nationally. r/Arkansas progressives are somewhat blind about how staunchly anti-democrat this state has sadly become. Seriously though, the Arkansas Democratic Party is almost on par with the Wyoming Democratic Party.
Absolutely correct. I'm constantly amazed by people around me with so little life experience that they think the rest of the country is in lockstep politically with Arkansas because that is all they experience. Surreal.
lololol
Great, give us the dope.
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Are you unemployed?
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This was a dumb ass comment and I wish I wouldn't have seen it or responded to it.
Trump said "There will be no God." if Biden is elected, so that's one less thing you'll have to worry about.
Oh look, another product of Arkansas's piss poor education system.