Cotton Makes Early Noise In Fourth District Race

Michael Tilley with our content partner, The City Wire, profiles GOP Fourth District Congressional candidate Tom Cotton.

Just yesterday, Cotton learned that he will have a formidable primary challenger as last year’s Republican nominee, Beth Anne Rankin, said she will announce another bid next week.

Scott County businessman Marcus Richmond has also said he’ll seek the GOP nomination. No Democrats have stepped forward and announced plans to succeed retiring Rep. Mike Ross (D).

Tilley profiles Cotton’s biography, but also gets into the meat of some policy issues:

Cotton also rejects the question of an acceptable ratio of spending cuts to tax increases. The question was made famous during a recent debate among GOP Presidential candidates, when all candidates said they would not accept a deal that called for $10 in cuts for every $1 in tax increases.

“I dispute the premise of the question,” Cotton swiftly responded, adding that “those spending cut deals never seem to work out.”

His belief is that the tax increases will go into effect immediately, and that a future Congress will “just lose the discipline” and not follow through with the spending cuts. Preventing Congress from losing fiscal discipline is also why Cotton advocates for a balanced budget amendment.

If elected, Cotton’s criticism of GOP leadership may not wane. He said he will not be a Representative on which the Republicans can always count on to vote for the party plan.

Cotton, who is pro-life, pro-second amendment and a self-professed “strong national security conservative, says the top issue in the race is the economy.

“As I’ve been doing this (traveling in the district), the economy and the weakness is at the top of the list,” Cotton said.

You can read the full interview at this link.  You can watch a video snippet from a brief interview with Cotton below.