California calling
Head west, young Republican
ARKANSAS’ native son and one of the country’s brightest hopes—Tom Cotton—has done more than his share of fundraising for the Grand Old Party, which keeps renewing itself even in these strange Trumpian times. Not too long ago, Sen. Cotton dropped in on Iowa, which casts the country’s first votes for president every four years. Surely it’s more than coincidence that Tom Cotton keeps popping up in states that hold early presidential primaries or caucuses. And now it’s California here he comes.
It’s not easy being a Republican in that populous state, but it’s far from impossible. California does send 14 Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, though it also sends 39 Democratic congressmen and women. The chairman of that state’s Republican Party—Jim Brulte—says the junior senator from Arkansas can “provide a vision for Republicans moving forward.” But in that state it’s sure to be a long, uphill slog. For both its United States senators are Democrats, and in last year’s presidential election Hillary Clinton carried the Golden State by more than 4 million votes. Republicans are clearly outnumbered there, but they needn’t be outfought.
Always a fighter in uniform or out, formerly Capt. Tom Cotton says of California: “Given its size, there’s still a lot of Republicans there. They’re a critical part of our [congressional] majority, and California’s our largest state. It ought not to be neglected.” Or as they used to say in Tom Cotton’s Army, it’s a target-rich environment. With that many people, it certainly should not be neglected, for to change the minds of a few million here, and a few million there, pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of votes.
So when Senator Cotton was asked to speak at the Republicans’ state convention in Anaheim, he wasted no time accepting the invitation. After all, he’s got a great success story to tell about what all the GOP has accomplished here in Arkansas, which has gone from being part of the solid (and Democratic) South to become an overwhelmingly Republican state. Once upon a time, Arkansas had one crop (cotton), one issue (race), and one party (Democratic). But how things have changed. Now it’s not only got a two-party system, which was the dream of this state’s Republicans for years, but one that the GOP now dominates.
“When they invited me,” Senator Cotton says about addressing California’s Republicans, “I was eager to come out and share a little about what I think is happening in our country and what our party has done back home in Arkansas. If we can gain the offices that we’ve won over the last 10 years in Arkansas, then there’s no reason that any state can’t do something similar.” After all, Arkansas was pretty much a Democratic state for more than a century. Now, like much of Dixie, it’s become a Republican stronghold. Talk about a turnaround, it’s just about a complete one. Republicans out in California may now have little more than hope to sustain them, but in Arkansas they have an example of what a determined GOP with the right leaders—like Tom Cotton, Asa Hutchinson, John Boozman, French Hill and the late great Winthrop Rockefeller—can bring to fruition.
BUT WHAT if one of those leaders, specifically Tom Cotton, should up and join the administration rather than staying in the U.S. Senate? By now Tom Cotton has been touted for just about every top job in Washington from secretary of defense to head of the Central Intelligence Agency. So would he accept one of those plum assignments? He says no.
As a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees, Senator Cotton makes a far better man to consult than recruit as a member of this administration, For him to join it would be a step down, not up. As far as California is concerned, Senator Cotton surely knows it may be a great place to visit but, as with many another tourist mecca, he doubtless wouldn’t choose to live there. Which is a wise decision on his part.