First District Candidates Mix It Up At Rector Labor Day Parade

From our content partner, KAIT Channel 8:

There was a very large turnout in Rector on Monday for their annual Labor Day parade.

With just a few months away from the November election, political candidates met with several people looking to gain some votes.

“I’ve never seen such a small town turn out to have so many people,” said Congressional Candidate Jackie McPherson.

Heber Springs Mayor Jackie McPherson is running for Congress in Arkansas’ 1st District. His opponent, Congressman Rick Crawford was also there hoping to gain the votes to keep him in congress.

“If you’re a candidate for anything in the 1st District of Arkansas you’re going to come to Rector on Labor Day,” said Congressman Rick Crawford.

Speeches began shortly after the parade ended. Each candidate discussed their political platform.

“I think there has been some misinformation about Veteran affairs and what that means,” said Crawford. “First off, I’m a Veteran so when I’m talking about Veterans I’m talking from a perspective that has that experience.”

“I think it’s important that we let people know that there is a choice in this race, and they need to know where I stand on issues and where my opponent stands on issues,” said McPherson.

It didn’t take long for things to heat up. Both McPherson and Crawford shared how they felt about their opponent’s political platform.

“The bill that I voted against restored funding to provide bonuses to executives in the VA that allowed people to die while they were waiting for care,” said Crawford. “We just can’t continue to do that kind of thing and my opponent says its ok, he says go ahead and give bonuses to people who essentially allowed veterans die.”

“Every congressional delegate in the state of Arkansas supported the legislation to bail out the VA except for Congressman Crawford,” said McPherson.”He’ll tell you that its deficit spending but just weeks prior he voted for $187 billion tax break to large corporation.”

Gubernatorial candidates Asa Hutchinson and Mike Ross and Senate candidates Mark Pryor and Tom Cotton were also in attendance in Northeast Arkansas on Labor Day.

Access the full story from KAIT Channel 8 at this link.