From the Arkansas Advocate:
A health care administrator who narrowly lost a bid for the Arkansas House last year is running once again, this time against an Air Force veteran in Tuesday’s special election.
The two are vying for the Democratic nomination in the hopes of flipping a Republican-held district that includes portions of North Little Rock and Sherwood as well as the Camp Joseph T. Robinson military base. Rep. Carlton Wing, R-North Little Rock, was serving his fifth term when he resigned in September to head Arkansas TV, the state’s recently rebranded public television outlet.
Wing’s resignation triggered a special election, and the special primary for House District 70 pits Alex Holladay against Cordelia Smith-Johnson.
The election has Holladay knocking on the same doors he visited a little over a year ago before Wing defeated him by 316 votes.
“It’s like a battle scar, like, ‘Yeah, I did this before, and it worked, they remember me,’” Holladay said.
Smith-Johnson has not run for office before but said residents comment on her accessibility and willingness to take on challenges.
“[They say], ‘You’re not scared to say this, you’re not scared to challenge a person on this,’” Smith-Johnson said. “I’ve been in the Air Force. I’ve never been scared of a fight.”
The primary winner will face Republican Bo Renshaw in the special general election on March 3. Regardless of who wins Tuesday, Smith-Johnson and Holladay will have a rematch in the regular primary, also on March 3.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders initially scheduled the special election to align with the regularly scheduled one in November. The state Democratic Party sued. Sanders relented after a judge ruled in the party’s favor.
Health care
Smith-Johnson left the Air Force in 2019 and is now a prevention coordinator for the Army National Guard. Holladay recruits health care professionals for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Both candidates said health care affordability is a major policy concern.
Smith-Johnson said many fellow veterans have expressed frustration about “the long wait time to see a specialist” because Arkansas doesn’t have enough highly specialized physicians. Her campaign website states veterans should have adequate housing and job opportunities as well as needed physical and mental health care.
“No one who served this country should have to fight for basic services,” the website states.
Holladay said he’s concerned about the impact of Medicaid cuts on District 70’s elderly population, in addition to the fact that “it’s just way too confusing getting care.”
“My dad is currently on long-term hospice,” he said. “Navigating that process is a nightmare, and I’m a professional.”
The federal government’s upcoming changes to Medicaid include work requirements and higher out-of-pocket costs for enrollees. KFF projects that Medicaid expansion states like Arkansas, could see a 14% drop in enrollment.
Education
Both candidates said they got into politics via the education system. Holladay considered running for school board in North Little Rock in 2023. The seat in his zone wasn’t up for election until 2026, so he ran for the Legislature in 2024 instead, he said.
What inspired Holladay to run was frustration with the LEARNS Act, the 2023 law that created a school voucher program that allows state funding to be used for certain private school and homeschooling expenses.
The state needs to implement “stricter guidelines” over how school voucher money is spent, he said. The state also should ensure an “equilateral education” for Arkansas children regardless of where they live or what type of school they attend, he said.
Smith-Johnson said school vouchers take away funds public schools could use for services to students with disabilities. Her daughter is homeschooled, but when she was in a traditional school setting, she was falling behind because she “didn’t have the resources” she needed from her individualized education plan, Smith-Johnson said.
“I stepped in to be the voice, and I got the parents to come stick with me on behalf of their kids, and we got things done, and I realized then that there’s power in a voice,” Smith-Johnson said.
Affordability and the prison proposal
Both candidates favor expanding access to pre-K. Smith-Johnson’s campaign website says she supports state-funded child care, and Holladay’s website expresses support for the child tax credit.
Smith-Johnson said a key tenet of affordability is ensuring low-income people’s access to food assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. She said she opposes new federal work requirements for SNAP recipients because they’re “not feasible,” including for veterans.
“I grew up on SNAP benefits,” she said. “My mom worked, and we still survived on SNAP.”
Holladay said some voters have told him they’re upset that Sanders wants to build a multimillion-dollar, 3,000-bed prison while people are “struggling to go to the grocery store.”
“I’ve been surprised by the number of voters that bring it up,” Holladay said. “I don’t even ask. They just bring it up because one of our [campaign] taglines is, ‘What matters to you?’”
Voters in Senate District 26 will also head to the polls Tuesday to choose a Republican candidate for their own special election. District 26 includes part of Franklin County, where the state bought 815 acres of land for the planned prison. The project met backlash from local residents, including the late Republican Sen. Gary Stubblefield, whose death in September triggered the election.
Smith-Johnson said she too has heard District 70 voters bring up the prison unprompted. She used to work as a probation officer, and she said a more effective response to crime in Arkansas would be restructuring the probation system.
“I don’t think a prison will solve our problems when we don’t have any rehabilitation in place,” she said.
Early voting for the special elections started Dec. 30 and ends Monday. District 70 residents can find their polling places on the Secretary of State’s website.
