CONWAY — Congressman Bruce Westerman fielded shots from Democratic challenger Risie Howard about his voting record during a televised debate at the Arkansas PBS studios on Thursday.
Howard, a lawyer from Pine Bluff, is running against Republican Westerman, a five-term U.S. representative, for Arkansas’ 4th District seat. Election Day is Nov. 5.
“The reason I am running is that I am dissatisfied with the way Congressman Westerman has represented us as a state,” Howard said in her closing statement. “We have a poverty level of 16.5 percent. The national average was 15 percent during the Great Depression.”
Howard said Westerman voted against the Violence Against Women Act of 2022; the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2021; the Build Back Better Act of 2021 to “rescue, recover and rebuild the country” according to the White House; and the Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act of 2021. Westerman, of Hot Springs, touted his record in voting for bipartisan legislation as a chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, including the Outdoor Recreation Act of 2023.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Fielding a question from a panel of three journalists, Howard said lithium is a best-kept secret of potential job growth in the 4th District, particularly in three counties outside the southeast corner of the state. “Lithium production is a trillion-dollar industry,” Howard said, adding Arkansas is “on the cusp” of leading lithium production in the country.
Howard is pushing to bring manufacturers to Arkansas, not only to take the element out of the ground but to produce it for vehicle batteries and other related products, a point on which Westerman expounded when asked in a post-debate interview about how to create jobs and lessen trade relations with China.
“We have an abundance of natural resources in Arkansas and in the 4th District,” Westerman said. “The problem is, we have this mentality of ‘not in my backyard.’ We want these resources; we just don’t want to produce them in our backyard. As a result of that, China is going out doing environmental damage. They use child slave labor to mine cobalt in the Congo. You can just look at violation after violation of environmental rules that we have here of human rights, of safety issues. That’s all out of sight and out of mind.”
During the debate, Howard and Westerman answered questions about their positions on the Affordable Care Act — commonly known as Obamacare — and abortion, among other topics.
“Almost 400,000 Arkansans were enrolled in Obamacare. That’s one in five Arkansans who take part,” Westerman said, asked why he voted to cut the health care policy under former President Barack Obama. “The Affordable Care Act, particularly Medicaid, is causing one of the highest prices due to the matching costs. There’s a much better way to do health insurance and health care. Employer providers don’t like the payment they get.”
Westerman argues he proposed a Medicare act that would fix Obamacare so that Medicare and other programs remain for the long run.
Howard said she supports the Affordable Care Act, detailing one of every three Arkansans is on Medicaid.
“Without the Affordable Care Act, without Medicaid, these people would not be able to get insurance,” Howard said.
Howard accused Republicans of giving corporations more than $5 trillion in tax cuts and taking $1.5 trillion from Social Security. She recalled visiting a man from Mena who suggested those who make more than $160,000 should have to pay a 6.2% Social Security tax like everyone else.
Westerman maintained his support for Arkansas’ ban on abortion in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that the Constitution does not confer a right to an abortion, effectively striking down a 49-year-old federal policy.
In Arkansas, Westerman explained, “There are exceptions for when the life of the mother is at stake. If there is a life involved, and when you look at the Declaration of Independence, which says ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,’ in this whole abortion debate, we forget a life is at stake. We should do everything we can to protect the life at stake.”
Howard said although she is personally against abortion, she has always voted for abortion rights because the decision of what a woman does with her body should be between her and a doctor.
“I don’t think I have the right to impose my views on anyone else,” she said. “As a member of the Roman Catholic Church, we do not believe in contraceptives nor abortion. Just as God gives us a free will, I don’t think the government has a right to impose its will on women. I think we need to allow women to have a free will and the government should allow women to have free will.”
Pine Bluff Commercial Editor Byron Tate was one of the panelists. The debate in its entirety is available at MyArkansasPBS.org.