A Democratic state lawmaker is running for re-election to represent a West Little Rock district in the state House of Representatives. She faces only a Libertarian challenger in the race.
Rep. Ashley Hudson, D-Little Rock, won her first term in the Arkansas Legislature by just 24 votes. Now, running for her third term representing West Little Rock’s House District 75, she says her work isn’t over.
“The thing with two-year terms is that, right about the time you figure out how to do everything, you’re up for election again," she said. "I felt like I’d really learned a lot in the second term, but also there’s a lot of work that I realized that still needs to be done.”
Her lone opponent in the race is Libertarian Michael White, who challenged Republican U.S. Congressman French Hill in 2022. A former business owner, he says his status as a third-party candidate would serve him well in the legislature.
“I can’t be threatened with being primaried out, it’s not going to work against me. I’m not interested in being a career politician… the impetus for me is not to continue to be elected, it’s to make sure we’re making really good decisions for Arkansans and Arkansans’ futures,” he said.
White says his fellow Libertarians have served an important role in other state legislatures, often serving as a tie-breaking vote on more controversial bills.
Both candidates describe their district as classic suburbia, encompassing most of West Little Rock. Hudson says a main goal of her next term will be to provide more aid for people affected by tornadoes, both in her district and in northwest Arkansas.
Maternal health will also be a big focus. Hudson plans to boost access to telehealth services for women living in maternal health deserts. She also wants to work to expand Medicaid coverage for a full year postpartum.
Arkansas is the only state that hasn’t yet done that, but Hudson says it’s unclear whether there’s enough political will to pass it.
“I don’t think that it’s feasible to pass unless the governor changes her mind on it. Although, I do think that even among some of my Republican colleagues, there’s some frustration about the fact that the governor has taken a position that we’re not going to do that,” Hudson said.
Hudson also says she would’ve supported the now-disqualified amendment to legalize abortion in Arkansas. White says he’s personally against abortion, but voters should’ve gotten the chance to weigh in.
“Those are community standards issues best left for the ballot, period, end of story. I don’t think the legislature should be doing those things to begin with. But if the Arkansas public, the voters decide so, then there it is.”
White says out-of-state actors have influenced the so-called “culture war” topics we’ve seen addressed through legislation in Arkansas; things like limiting gender-affirming care for minors, and restricting bathroom usage for trans people. Hudson has been outspoken against those pieces of legislation, and suspects the fight against them isn’t over
“The amount of time that we spend on legislation to just tell these kids over and over and over again that we don’t like them, and we think they’re weird, and we don’t want them in our schools, and we don’t want them to be able to use the restroom, and we just don’t want them around, is appalling to me as a mom and as a person.”
When it comes to education, White calls the education overhaul known as the LEARNS Act “haphazard,” but says he would’ve still voted for it.
“That legislation ultimately will be perfected over the years. In fact, LEARNS will dominate the political conversation in Arkansas, I guarantee you, for the next decade, because it involves so many things. It involves taxes, it involves kids, it involves education, I mean, come on, right?”
Hudson voted against the LEARNS Act, but says she’s in favor of some parts of it.
“But there’s a lot of it that needs to be fixed, and it’s a lot harder to fix a 144-page bill than it is to be able to go through and take each piece in sort of a more bite-size chunk.”
Another of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ stated priorities is to gradually eliminate the state’s income tax. White says he’s all for that, and also proposes a parallel record-keeping system for the state’s finances on the blockchain to help cut down on “fraud, waste and abuse.”
“I think that would be a really awesome way for us to feed instant, un-alterable ledgers to machine learning, find places where we can increase efficiency. Because what if we could say, ‘hey, we can do twice as much with half the revenue’?”
Hudson says she has real concerns with eliminating the income tax without identifying funding sources for already-underfunded state programs, like education and healthcare.
“I think that there’s a way to do targeted cuts that would be responsible and appropriate, but I think you have to walk and chew gum. You have to say ‘we’re going to work on cutting taxes over here, but here’s how we’re allocating the funds that we have over here to make sure everything’s being taken care of so that we have fully-funded services.”
Looking ahead to next year’s legislative session, Republican leaders have said higher education is a main priority. White says he hopes to see legislation to make it more affordable and accessible.
“Because we need more independent Arkansans, we need to grow a generation of people that are economically viable, and that should be the ultimate priority that we have.”
Hudson agrees, but, after two terms in the legislature, has a less optimistic view of what we’ll see in the 2025 session.
“One of the things that we’ve seen over the past couple of sessions is the desire to use Arkansas as a test ground for some of the worst ideas in the country on education in particular… so if we’re working on legislation to try to figure out how we can help schools improve cost, that would be great. But I don’t think that’s what we’re going to be working on.”
Election Day is November 5.