State Democrats pick Louisianian to speak

Party’s dinner now bears Clinton name

Looking for a headliner for their annual fundraising dinner, Arkansas Democrats turned to neighboring Louisiana, where Gov. John Bel Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.

Edwards was announced Wednesday as the keynote speaker for this year's Clinton Dinner, the first time the event will bear the name of the former Arkansas governor and U.S. president.

The Clinton Dinner will be held July 22 in the Wally Allen Ballroom at Little Rock's Statehouse Convention Center.

Democrats last year followed the lead of their peers in other states and dropped the traditional Jefferson-Jackson moniker over concerns about connection to the slave-owning presidents.

For a new name, Democrats chose one that has been a regular at the event in recent years.

Last year's dinner was headlined by Bill Clinton, and the year before that Hillary Clinton came to town to speak.

Both appearances came as Hillary Clinton mounted her unsuccessful bid for the presidency. The former secretary of state and first lady also spoke by video in 2014.

The annual event is the top political fundraiser of the year for the state Democratic Party.

While Bill Clinton enjoyed five terms as governor and carried the state twice in his presidential races, Hillary Clinton lost badly in the state last November.

Bucking the trend of Democratic losses across the South, Edwards was elected governor of Louisiana in 2015.

"We keep hearing that the South is lost to Democrats, and he proved that narrative wrong," said Michael John Gray, the newly elected chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party.

Gray, who is also a state representative from Augusta, said he first met Edwards at last year's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Edwards was his first choice to speak at the event, he said.

Both Edwards and his 2015 opponent for governor, former Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, ran on anti-abortion and pro-gun rights positions, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.

Vitter was plagued by his connections to a Washington, D.C.-prostitution scandal. Under Edwards' Republican predecessor, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana entered a budget crisis it is still trying to extricate itself from.

On Tuesday, Edwards' office released a statement saying that President Donald Trump's proposed budget "turns a blind eye to the needs" of Louisiana, specifically pointing to cuts in Medicaid funding and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The Arkansas Democratic Party released a similar statement this week.

Former aides from the Clinton White House years also have headlined the Arkansas event in the past.

The last time an out-of-state official delivered the keynote address was in 2012, when former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm spoke. Two years before that, the headliner was then-Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Ticket prices for this year's event have not yet been set.

Metro on 05/25/2017

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