State Rep. Marshall Wright Considering First District Congressional Race

Last week, we focused on a potential Democratic candidate for the Fourth Congressional District, State Senator Bruce Maloch, so I thought today we’d focus on a potential Democratic candidate for the First Congressional District. The First District is currently represented by Republican Rick Crawford.

One name that has been mentioned is Democratic State Representative Marshall Wright of Forrest City. Wright is currently in his second term in the House and is the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which is impressive considering the GOP controls the state legislature. Wright is an attorney with Sharpe, Beavers, Cline & Wright in Forrest City.

I spoke with Representative Wright today about the rumors of his potential candidacy. Wright tells me he is considering it:

“I have thought about it and I have not made any final decision, but I am thinking about it.”

I asked Representative Wright, regardless of whether he runs for Congress or not, what does he see as the important issues in the First District:

“The big ones: farms, jobs, population shift, having a representative that is willing to represent the entire district. It’s a big district geographically, it runs from Louisiana all the way up to Missouri. I haven’t been happy with the representation we’ve got representing the whole district. And that’s one of my key focuses is because it’s a very diverse district, it has a strong contingent of Democrats and Republicans and I think we’ve got to have somebody that’s less polarizing than our Congressman is now.”

I asked Wright to elaborate a bit further on his problems with incumbent Republican Rick Crawford:

“Without getting too far into now, I don’t think he’s done a job of representing all of the district. He’s catered to a certain part of the district and I don’t think that’s right. And with all that said, I still haven’t made a final decision.”

Wright said right now his main focus has been on the legislative session and will not make a final decision until after it concludes.