At last JJ Dinner, Democrats say they’re ‘here for the future’

Democratic officeholders and prospective officeholders touted their party Friday night at the 35th annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.

Conner Eldridge, candidate for U.S. Senate, said other parties are “for the few” while Democrats stand for all people, including individuals in the LGBT community and an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Roberto who came to America at age 3 and lives in fear of being deported.

“We in this room know that we have to win this election; we have to go to Washington; we have to do the hard work of passing legislation that makes a difference for Roberto and says to him what we know in this room to be true: You’re an Arkansan; you’re an American; we stand with you,” he said.

Choking up, Eldridge said he is running for his mother, who was a teacher earning $22,000 a year and raised three children as a single mom.

“Mom, when people ask me why I’m running as an Arkansas Democrat, I tell them that I remember you,” he said.

Eldridge trailed his incumbent opponent, Sen. John Boozman, 51-29% in a recent Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll conducted June 21. Still, he told the crowd he would win in November.

“Some said that the Arkansas Democratic Party is dead, that we’re here tonight just to harken back to the past and to tell old war stories. I’m here to tell you, we are here for the future,” he said.

Diane Curry, the Democrats’ candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, said she is running for veterans, seniors, working men and women, minorities and the LGBTQ community “to have a place in the House.”

“I believe in one of the most fundamental ideas of our party – that government is not only necessary, but that it’s good,” she said.

She called Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the southern border “uniquely an awful idea” and said the party must incorporate the ideas of Sen. Bernie Sanders into the party’s platform. She said the party that elected the first Catholic, the first Arkansan and the first African-American president would vote for the first female in Hillary Clinton.

“Come November, this party will say, it’s time we get used to the sound of ‘Madame President,’” she said.

Among the party’s award winners were House Majority Leader Michael John Gray, D-Augusta, and Senate Majority Leader Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, who shared the Chairman’s Heritage Award.

In his acceptance speech, Gray said Democrats must address tough issues, including preventing discrimination based on sexual preference. He said police need to be lifted up as heroes and receive the necessary resources but also should be held accountable. He said he can keep his two-year-old from downloading a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse app on his phone but it only takes two clicks for him to fire his gun. He said he would “lead the fight to make sure you don’t take my guns away, but I’ve got no problem with making them safer.”

“If we keep whistling by the graveyard and don’t talk about these issues that are uncomfortable for us to talk about them, then who’s going to talk about them?” he said.

Ingram said Democrats are “uniters, not dividers.”

“Our core values have really never changed,” Ingram said. “Do you think that Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater or Teddy Roosevelt or President Eisenhower would recognize the Republican Party that exists today? Do you think that FDR, that Harry Truman, that John F. Kennedy wouldn’t miss a beat and be in lockstep with us as we are today?”

Dr. Jay Barth and Sheila Bronfman received the Ed Fry Democrat of the Year Award. Former Sen. David Pryor received the Harold Jinks Award as the Democratic Man of the Year, while former Sen. Mary Ann Salmon received the Gressie Carnes Award as the Democratic Woman of the Year. The Daisy and L.C. Bates Humanitarian Award went to the Democrats’ Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus. The Jeffrey Ledbetter Award for the Young Democrat of the Year was awarded to the late Jessamy Samuels.

Former Gov. Mike Beebe introduced the night’s keynote speaker, former President Bill Clinton.