Republican Women host state senate candidates
On April 5, Arkansas District 35 Senate Republican candidates Gayla Hendren McKenzie, Tyler Dees and Jeff Tennant gathered in Compass Fellowship Church to participate in a candidate forum hosted by the Republican Women of Siloam Springs.
The forum, which featured a number of questions from both the moderator and the audience, covered a wide array of political topics. While the candidates often became impassioned talking about their beliefs, they notably remained respectful, and rarely made digs at their opponents.
One of the biggest issues of the night, spurred by a question fielded by a member of the Republican Women, was focused on the state’s financial situation, and how candidates would approach situations that forced them to either raise taxes or cut state programs.
Tennant, a prominent Gentry businessman, likened his plan for the situation to his business practices.
“As a state, it’s important to have a little savings account that allows us to react quickly to things that have hit our economy like it has this year with the Ukrainian crisis,” Tennant said. “We need money to get ourselves through and to manage well.”
Tennant continued, saying, “I’ve always found ways to be more efficient, but I do believe that increasing taxes is bad for the economy, bad for small businesses and bad for our families. I would certainly look at frugality and cutting our spending before we raise taxes.”
Dees agreed, saying, “We have to find ways to reprioritize what’s the most important things.
“If we unleash the hounds, and any time we get in trouble we increase taxes, we can’t have that. We have to make sure there’s a prioritization, we have to make sure we stay within that, and if times get lean, and there’s an issue, we find ways to cut back.”
With issues of corporate involvement in government being a hot topic in the political sphere, a few of the candidates shifted their focus in answering this issue with denouncing big business.
“The most important thing is
engaging the constituents,” McKenzie said. “I’m not against corporations, big business; I’m not against any of that, but keep your values there. They’ve got money, but you’ve got more votes, and that’s power, and we’ve got to remember as legislators to answer to our constituents.”
McKenzie, who has experience in politics, made her desire for constituent engagement a highlight of her forum appearance.
“We need to interact with you all, instead of just deciding in a room somewhere what we are going to do,” McKenzie said. “We need to reach out to you and say ‘this is what’s coming up, these are our issues, these are the options.’ Give me your input, that’s what makes us a better government, when we are interacting with each other and it’s not just a few deciding what to do with your money.”
The issue was later reignited after McKenzie’s father, former representative Kim Hendren, asked candidates if they would be willing to stand their ground against major corporations.
Other big issues of the forum included the Texas abortion law and the current government in Little Rock all of which the candidates shared similar opin