Bella Vista Democrat in House bid

Celeste Williams of Bella Vista, Democratic candidate for state House, District 95.
Celeste Williams of Bella Vista, Democratic candidate for state House, District 95.

BELLA VISTA -- Celeste Williams, 42, of Bella Vista will run as a Democrat for the state House District 95 seat currently held by Rep. Austin McCollum, R-Rogers. McCollum confirmed Monday that he will run for a second term.

"I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not," said Williams on why she was making the first Democratic bid for the district seat since 2002. This is Williams' first run for political office, she said. She described herself as a "Blue Dog Democrat," a term used to describe socially and fiscally conservative Southern Democrats.

Williams works as a nurse practitioner for the Mercy health system at its Centerton clinic. She and her husband, Kirk, are parents of two and foster parents of three children. They have lived in Bella Vista for 15 years.

Williams grew up in Oklahoma and received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla., she said. She has a master's degree in nursing from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, she said.

"Every day decisions are made in Little Rock and Washington that affect people's health care," Williams said. Too often, those decisions are made without a realistic idea of what those effects will be, she said.

"A lot of people were helped by the Affordable Care Act, but it really hurt a lot of people in the middle class," she said, referring to federal health care legislation passed in 2010. "A lot of people in the middle class are really struggling with health care costs. We also have an opioid epidemic that is affecting parents, leaving grandparents raising their grandchildren and having to skip meals so those children can have something to eat."

Better-paying jobs and infrastructure including roads are big concerns in the district, which includes eastern Bella Vista along with Pea Ridge, Little Flock, Avoca and portions of Rogers, Williams said.

The public is invited to attend Williams' campaign kickoff event at Las Fajitas in Bella Vista at 6 p.m. on Nov. 30. Williams will give a short speech, answer questions and meet with district constituents at the event, she said.

Metro on 11/14/2017

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