Fort Smith area GOP legislators say Trump is ‘surprising’ and ‘distasteful’

As the Republican primary for the 2016 Presidential nomination heats up, area GOP lawmakers are weighing in on their party’s candidates with picks, odds, and what the eventual nominee can expect from the other side.

The GOP will conduct its second primary debate Wednesday (Sept. 16). The event will begin 7 p.m. (CST), is being held at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and is being moderated by CNN anchors and reporters Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Hugh Hewitt. Participating in the 7 p.m. debate is Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Scott Walker.

The City Wire reached out to Arkansas Senators Terry Rice, R-Waldron, and Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, as well as State Rep. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, to find out where each stands. While there weren’t a lot of endorsements to go around, all three had something to say about the Elephant Party’s 900-pound elephant, billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump.

When asked if Trump had a legitimate shot at the nomination, Rep. Boyd acknowledged the GOP frontrunner is “polling well now, relatively speaking, but a lot will likely change as we near the primary season.” Sen. Files believes Trump has “a legitimate shot at the nomination,” a fact he calls “surprising.”

“I think he is resonating with people for a couple of reasons,” Files said. “First, he makes you want to listen or watch because you are not sure what he will say. This is good and bad. Second, he is saying things that many people are saying, again right or wrong, and he is unabashedly not backing down from his statements. It also doesn’t hurt that people perceive that politics has gotten us into a quagmire, [so] why not give someone else a chance?”

POLITICAL CLASS
Sen. Rice says Trump comes across as too distasteful to represent the Republican Party.

“What I would like to ask anybody that says, ‘I like Trump and what he’s saying,’ is this: do you want somebody, who, when anybody questions what he is saying, or disagrees with anything he says, calls that person ‘stupid’ and belittles them?” Rice said, adding that “we’ve got a president that’s a little like that right now.”

Rice added: “I appreciate anybody having opinions, but you’ve got to be able to deliver those opinions with political class, and that’s lacking in Trump. I think he lacks the basic respect for others.”

Rice admits he doesn’t “have much use for arrogance or conceit,” and that he sees that in the Trump campaign, though he does credit “The Donald” for “stirring the pot.” One candidate Rice does like is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whom he calls his “top pick.” Like Trump, Cruz is an opponent of “political correctness” and a believer that the government needs to stop “overcorrecting and over-regulating everything,” Rice said. He’s also a “pragmatic” and “knowledgeable” leader and has the ability to respect those who disagree with him as opposed to the reigning frontrunner.

Rice also commented that Cruz has “a lot of the same ideals I have” as well as the ability to affect the kind of radical change needed to get Washington working again, which is a good thing because “we can’t stand much more of the status quo.”

Boyd couldn’t isolate a top pick at this time, but was able to give The City Wire his top three candidates and said that he believed there were many in the crowded field with the “ideology, experience and records” to get the job done.

“More than one of those candidates appears to have the fundraising ability to win the primary, so I have yet to narrow it down to a single candidate,” he said, but his top three were Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida), and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. (Perry has since exited the race.) Walker (No. 1) and Perry (No. 3), because of their “executive experience and record”; and Rubio (No. 2), because he’s “solid on the issues and an effective communicator.”

LOOKING FOR ELECTABILITY
Unlike his colleagues, Files wasn’t ready to name a “top pick,” nor could he point out his top three at this point in the primary season, stating, “I am finding, like any voter, that I like different things about several of the candidates. I think as we get closer to the election and more specifics are defined on proposals, it will be easier to see who really has a plan and also who really is electable.”

As for the question of whom the GOP nominee will face, Rice wasn’t sure if current Vice President Joe Biden had “the fire in his belly” to chase the nomination, but acknowledged he would probably have a shot against current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton at this point. Files agreed that Clinton’s “many issues surrounding her trust level with voters” could hurt her, stating, “I just don’t see her making it to the election without major problems.”

“Having said that, I can’t see Biden or Sanders being legitimate candidates, so she may be there by default,” he added.

In spite of her clear trust issues — Quinnipiac released a poll at the end of July showing that 57% of voters did not find Clinton to be trustworthy, compared to just 37% who did — Boyd believes the former First Lady and Secretary of State will get there based on “name recognition, experience and a loyal following.”

For Rice, whatever Democrats throw at the GOP come November 2016, this is probably the “most important election of my lifetime.” Another four years of today’s Democratic Party in the White House, Rice said, would leave the U.S. as “a country I would no longer recognize.”