By STEVE BRAWNER
While it certainly appears that President Biden and former President Trump will win their parties’ nominations, Arkansans still have a chance to express their preferences when the state holds its primaries March 5.
They should do so. And they have lots of choices.
Fifteen candidates are on the Republican and Democratic primary ballots, and a vote for any of them will still count even if the candidate has dropped out of the race or, to use the term often used by candidates, “suspended” their campaign.
Nine of the candidates will appear on the Republican primary ballot, including Trump and Nikki Haley. She is still in the race though badly needing to pull a rabbit out of a hat when her home state of South Carolina votes Feb. 24.
Also on the ballot are former Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other candidates who appeared on stage in the early debates leading up to the Iowa caucus. Those include Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Two other candidates will be on the Republican ballot who have not gotten as much attention.
One is Ryan Binkley, who finished ahead of Hutchinson in Iowa and is still actively campaigning. In fact, he’s the only candidate still running against Trump in the Nevada caucus Feb. 8.
Binkley is president and CEO of Dallas-area-based Generational Group, a business consultancy with more than 300 employees. He and wife Ellie also founded the multiethnic Create Church. They have five children, the youngest adopted from South Korea.
His policy positions on his website show him to be clearly conservative while seeking solutions and not so beholden to today’s us-versus-them, left-right, bumper-sticker politics. For example, he talks about erecting a physical barrier on the southern border while also giving illegal immigrants who are already here “a realistic path to legal status.”
The other Republican candidate is David Stuckenberg, co-founder and CEO of clean water technology startup Genesis Systems and a major in the Air Force Reserves. His primary issues listed on his website are national security, reforming the economy including cutting all tax brackets by 33%, and stopping illegal immigration. To do that, he favors using the military while giving immigrants already here a 60-day period to register and undergo background and health checks.
On the Democratic side, the national party has basically rigged – and I don’t use that word often or lightly – the primary process to ensure Biden wins the nomination. I don’t know why party leaders are so determined to renominate a candidate who would be 86 years old when his second term ends and who is trailing Trump in the polls, but they are.
That doesn’t mean Arkansas voters have to play along. Five other candidates are running as Democrats. One is Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, a businessman and one of Congress’ wealthiest members. He led his family’s liquor business and also headed an ice cream company and opened a couple of coffee shops. (Unusual combination, right?) He’s a centrist who has been active in the No Labels Problem Solvers Caucus composed of Democrats and Republicans.
The other four Democrats are Marianne Williamson, Frankie Lozada, Stephen Lyons, and Armando Perez-Serrato. Of those, Williamson is the best known. She’s an author who ran for president in 2020.
One of the problems with the American political system is that it strongly encourages – indeed, forces – everything into a two-person, either-or choice. Voters often must choose between what they see as the lesser of two evils.
There are reforms such as ranked choice voting that could help and that can be discussed in another column. One thing that can help – now – is for Americans to stop seeing elections merely as contests to pick a winner.
Elections are that, but they are also much more. They give voters an opportunity to express themselves, and when enough do, the power structure must listen. A good example is Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign. His focus was balancing the budget. After he won 19% of the vote, the budget was balanced.
All of this means if you want to vote for Hutchinson because you thing he was a good governor and appreciated his pragmatic, Reagan Republican approach, or you think Biden and/or Trump are too old, or you want an unconventional candidate and fresh face – vote your conviction.
We’re still voting. Votes still count. And there might be more people like you than you think.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 15 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.
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