Spencer ‘trending towards’ Second District Congressional challenge of Rep. Hill

Raised in northeastern Ohio, Paul Spencer watched good-paying jobs dry up in the Rust Belt town of Steubenville, once a thriving steel manufacturing hub. With nearly 20 years of domestic life in Arkansas, Spencer hopes he can apply his steel resolve to a Second District Congressional challenge to incumbent GOP Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock.

Spencer, who has formed an exploratory committee for the race in 2018, was a guest on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics. He says he’s still undecided about fully jumping in, but is leaning that way.

“I went into this fully prepared to go all the way through. And so far, things are looking pretty positive for that. But, no one knows what tomorrow holds, we saw that with the hearings today [Thursday] with the President and Comey. And as such, everything’s in flux politically, so I like to keep my options open, but I’m trending towards the run at this point in time,” he said.

Healthcare is a resonant issue in the race as Spencer has heard from many citizens in the Second District dissatisfied with the House version of “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act. The influence of money and big business in politics is also part of his calling card. It’s where Spencer, a government and history teacher at Catholic High School in Little Rock, cut his activist teeth over the last several years.

“As far as being in politics here, and being an activist here, I had no desire to ever be an activist anywhere, or be in politics,” he said. “After 2010, and the Citizens’ United decision was handed down, that case really lit a fire under me to get out and advocate against the notion that corporations are people, that money was speech. And I saw that many times a lot of our problems that we face today are caused by this roar of money into politics. I always referred to it as the Aristotelian first mover of all subsequent corruption.”

Watch Spencer’s full interview in the video below.