BELLA VISTA (KFSM) -- Democratic candidates for state and U.S. seats visited with voters Sunday (June 24) at a barbecue.
Chris Birch who is running for the House District 92 seat hosted the event.
He said protecting public education is important because there has been a big shift to charter schools in our area.
“I feel like that really drains our public education system and we really need to focus on building up our public education system because when we send kids to private and charter schools it really disproportionately affects minorities and it leads to sort of a division in our community,” he said.
Celeste Williams is running for the state Senate District 95 seat. She is a family nurse practitioner and said she sees first-hand so many families who struggle to afford healthcare.
“If I write a prescription and then they are struggling to afford that prescription or coming to see me in the clinic, they then can't pay their rent or they are struggling to afford food," she said. "There is a lot of food insecurity as well."
Josh Mahony is vying for the seat held by Congressman Steve Womack.
“His budget basically tries to push-off the deficit they created with the tax bill on to Medicare and social security, things that Arkansans have worked hard for and paid into their entire lives and onto Medicaid, which we absolutely have to have in our state,” he said.
Running for Governor is Jared Henderson who spent the last six years working in public education recruiting and training teachers.
He said in the next 10 years locals need to make Arkansas the best state to be a public school teacher, but says there are many other important issues.
“I think we can knock down the barriers to small business creation and growth in every community in the state," said Henderson. "I think we have got to focus like a laser on driving down the cost of welfare which is proven to be too expensive even for people who are making a solid middle class income."
Also, there was Mike Lee who is running for Arkansas attorney general and Anthony Bland who is running for Lieutenant Governor.