A pair of Republicans say that they will vie to replace outgoing state Rep. Trevor Drown, R-Dover, but neither cited a specific agenda for what they want to accomplish.
Drown, a two-term member of the House of Representatives, announced last year that he would not seek re-election in 2018, choosing instead to run for secretary of state. He represents House District 68, which wraps around the town of Clinton and stretches to Russellville.
A former House member who represented the area, Stan Berry, said last week, “There’s some very interesting things that will come about in the next session, and I’m interested in being a part of it.”
Asked what those “interesting things” were, Berry said he expected health care, highways and guns to be the top issues.
Health care — or more specifically Arkansas’ private-option Medicaid expansion, which uses mostly federal funds to purchase health insurance for some 285,000 low-income Arkansans — has been one of the most divisive issues in the Legislature. Conservative Republicans have balked at the program’s spending, while many Democrats have soured on Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s revisions to the program that removed some recipients.
Berry, who does outreach for the secretary of state’s office, declined to say whether he would support the program until “finding out more about it.”
His opponent in the primary, Dustin Morphis of Russell-ville, similarly said he wanted to study the program, often called Arkansas Works, before taking a stance on it.
“I don’t think it’s good, but you can’t take it away without having something to replace it,” Morphis said, adding that he did not have an idea for a replacement.
According to a campaign news release, Morphis is a production supervisor at Bridge-stone Americas Tube Business and is a member of the Russell-ville Chamber of Commerce board of directors. In a phone interview, he said he decided to run because he’s not a career politician and “we need new people with different ideas.”
Morphis said he did not know of any ideas enacted by the current Legislature that he opposed, but said he would look into it.
The only policy on his platform for now, Morphis said, is favoring the “sanctity of life.” He also said he wants to train more workers for employment but did not know how the state could do so.
As for Berry’s platform, the former three-term representative from Dover said the state Department of Transportation needs more money, but that it should not come from increasing the gas or sales tax. He added that he also didn’t like the idea of raising money for roads by allowing more casinos to open, as was proposed in a constitutional amendment. Berry did not say where he thinks the highway funds should come from.
Describing himself as “pro-Second Amendment,” Berry said he thinks the next Legislature will again be faced with the question of where people should be allowed to take their guns.
Asked if he agreed with a 2017 law allowing some license holders to carry concealed handguns onto college campuses, Berry again demurred.
“I’m not sure that I know of any college professors that I felt comfortable protecting me on a college campus with a gun,” he said. “I’ll put it that way.”
Both Morphis and Berry said they attended Arkansas Tech University.
Berry, 63, said he is happily married with nine grandchildren. Morphis is 41 and lives with his wife, according to his news release.
No Democrats have publicly announced plans to run for the open House seat.