Arkansas Democrats throw support behind Kamala Harris

Delegates pledge for Vice President follwing Biden exit from race

By Ralph Hardin

news@theeveningtimes.com

Arkansas is decidedly not a “battleground state” or even a “swing state” in the upcoming presidential election. With only 6 electoral votes and with a reputation ove being one of the “reddest” states in the U.S., the state is clearly “Trump country” (the former president outpolled President Joe Biden 63% to 35% in the 2020 race).

But that did not stop Arkansas Democrats from getting behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the Novemer vote following Sunday’s announcement that President Biden was dropping out of his bid for re-election.

Arkansas Democrats didn’t take long to line up behind Vice President Kamala Harris as their party’s presidential nominee.

The 36 state party delegates slated to travel to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 19-24 met virtually Monday night and unanimously voted to support her. Then, in a midday Tuesday Zoom press call, party chair Grant Tennille said the prior evening’s meeting did not take long.

Tennille said he could tell which way the party was leading by Sunday afternoon, not long after President Biden announced he was dropping out of the race. Sensing the mood in the room Monday, he had quickly called for a voice vote.

What happened in Arkansas was also happening nationwide. By Tuesday morning, Politico was reporting that Harris had secured enough commitments to clinch the nomination. The website listed more than a dozen state delegations that had announced their support, a number that has grown in the past three days.

A number of factors influenced the party’s quick turn toward Harris. As the vice president, a Harris win would be a mostly seamless transition (and the easiest way to use the money the Biden-Harris campaign had already raised). Tennille and other Democratic Party officials described two other factors in their Zoom call.

One, the 59-year-old Harris pits to rest concerns about the mental acuity of the 81-yearold Biden.

“Young people are really driving here for Democrats in Arkansas,” the 55-year-old Tennille said. “They are stepping into positions of authority, and they’re working their fannies off, and they didn’t have much doubt about what they wanted to have happen.

You’ve got older folks like me, I like things to remain where I understand them.”

Two, the fact that Harris is a woman of color – the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother who was born in the U.S. – gives the ticket a much more progressive look than the traditional “two whire men” that the GOP is running.

Jannie Cotton, the state party’s vice chair, twice called her expected nomination a “historical moment.”

“I see people as excited as they were with President Obama,” she said. “I think we’re going to see a flood of that.”

Still, the party’s outlook in Arkansas is doubtful. Democrats have been trying without success to break the Republican Party’s supermajority in the state legislature. With more than 75 percent majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans can pass legislation along party lines, with Democrats powerless to stop it. Republicans also hold all seven executive offices in the state (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, commissioner of state lands and state auditor).

In fact, the last time a Democrat carried Arkansas in a presidential election was 1996, when Bill Clinton won the state.

Tennille said Harris might help Democrats hold on to threatened seats, including here in Crittenden County where both Democratic state representatives (Milton Nicks and Deborah Ferguson) are not seeking re-election and there are candidates from both parties in the race to fill those vacancies in November.

“As you know, Arkansas Democrats live life on the margins right now,” he said. “We are looking for those juicy races where we’re within three figures, and she’s got the potential to make a real difference in those places. Again, all we’re about is trying to bust that supermajority, and we’re going to do it one race at a time.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris

Former U.S. President Donald Trump