Former President Bill Clinton to speak at Arkansas State University

The youngest governor in the United States at the time knew he’d made several tactical errors during his first term, and it wasn’t a surprise when Democrat Bill Clinton was ousted by Republican Frank White during his next election. The 34-year-old didn’t give up. He spent the next two years traveling the state of Arkansas asking voters to forgive him.

By his own admissions, he spent an inordinate amount of time in northeast Arkansas. The region was then the Democrats power base in the state, and he knew he had to run the score up with voters in the area to have any chance to reclaim the governor’s office. His plan worked, and in 1982 voters sent Clinton back to the governor’s office.

Clinton has said more than once that voters in northeast Arkansas are directly responsible for his successful presidential bid in 1992. The former president will return to the region Feb. 11 when he will speak at Riceland Hall in the Fowler Center on the Arkansas State University campus.

“An Evening with President Clinton” will be part of the Riceland Distinguished Presentation Series, and will begin at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free, courtesy of the Riceland Distinguished Presentation Series, but all seats are reserved and must be requested in advance.

After leaving the White House, the former president established the Clinton Foundation in order to continue working on the causes he cared about. Since its founding, the Foundation has endeavored to help build more resilient communities by developing and implementing programs that improve people’s health, strengthen local economies, and protect the environment.

In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton served as the top United Nations envoy for the Indian Ocean tsunami recovery effort and the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, and he has partnered numerous times with Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush to support relief efforts for communities devastated by natural disasters.

Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the first lady in the state and country. She was elected as a senator from New York, and in 2016 she became the first female nominee of a major national party when the Democratic Party chose her to represent it in that year’s presidential contest. She lost to President Donald Trump.

Tickets may be requested online at AState.edu/RicelandSeries, with the ticket portal opening on Monday, Feb. 4, at 10 a.m. Students, faculty and staff will be asked to verify themselves as members of the ASU community. A number of seats will be available to the general public through the portal on a first-come, first-served basis. Only one seat per person may be requested.