LITTLE ROCK — Trevor Drown, an independent candidate, says he’s running for the U.S. Senate because that’s what people wanted him to do.
“My name is Trevor Drown and I am a Christian,” Drown said in his opening statement during a Senate debate Oct. 13. “Like the majority of Arkansans, I choose to live my life by God and country.”
He said he has a “strongbelief” in the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) and the 10th Amendment (which reserves to the states powers not specifically assigned to the federal government).
Drown, 40, of Russellville didn’t return repeated messages last week from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette seeking an interview. A campaign volunteer, Roy Fitzgerald, said Drown got the messages but was too busy working to talk.
According to Drown’s website, he is married with two children. He was born in Mountain Home, is a graduate of Russellville High School and Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He works for UPS, owns a coffee and tea vending-service company, and is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
The website says he helped organize a Tea Party event in Russellville in April 2009 and was one of the speakers.
“At the conclusion of the event, and for days after, people asked Trevor to run for a political office, to once again provide leadership in service to his community, state, and country,” the website says.
After a Tea Party event July 4, 2009, Drown held an Internet poll to decide which office he would seek. The majority of Internet voters wanted him to run for U.S. Senate, according to the website.
He has spoken at more than 17 Tea Party events around the state, according to the site.
The secretary of state in May verified that Drown had turned in the required 10,000 signatures from certified Arkansas voters to qualify for the ballot as an independent.
Drown’s website calls for cutting government spending, supporting the free market, helping Israel, deploying the National Guard to patrol the border with Mexico, repealing the health-care legislation, letting states regulate abortion, and passing a balanced-budget amendment.
During the Oct. 13 debate, Drown said he’d consider allowing the Legislature to appoint U.S. senators by repealing the 17th Amendment, which calls for election of U.S. senators by popular vote. He said if elected he would post his opinions on every bill on his website unless he views a bill as “illegal, immoral or unconstitutional.”
Front Section, Pages 13 on 10/24/2010