Pine Bluff lawyer to run for Congress
Risie Howard, a Pine Bluff lawyer, announced her candidacy for the 4th District U.S. Congress position.
The seat is currently held by Congressman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who announced he would seek re-election.
Howard is a solo practitioner at the George Howard Jr. Legal Center named for her late father, United States District Judge George Howard Jr.
She holds licenses to practice law in the state of Arkansas, federal United States District Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I’m running for Congress and Arkansas voters will have a ‘Democratic choice’ and in some instances they have not had that choice in the past,” she said in a news release.
“Mainly, this race is not about me and what my platform is rather I am saying, District 4, you tell me your agenda; you let me know what is important to YOU and you tell me your concerns and those are the goals I will work toward developing. It takes time. If elected, my votes in Congress will be votes for ‘“We the People,’” said Howard in the press release.
A graduate of the Bowen Law School in Little Rock, Howard was selected for the Class of 2010 Public Service Award and the Dean’s Distinguished Public Service Award for her work with the U.S. Navy JAG Corps at the Regional Office in Gulfport, Miss. She was recognized as a student honoree along with Judge Andree Layton Roaf, Alumni Honoree (posthumously) and Professor Charles Goldner, faculty honoree, at a law school program in their honor.
She said she believes her initial legal training with the military and 13 years of law practice in Pine Bluff have helped to prepare her for the challenges of political office. Public service is also in her family history.
“Both my parents were public servants, my father working for the Department of Justice as a federal judge and my mother working with the Department of the Treasury as a key punch operator after graduating high school. My paternal grandmother was a public servant working with welfare families in the Appalachian Mountains as a volunteer with VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) after retiring from a career of teaching in Arkansas,” Howard said.
Howard also completed summer legal studies at Trinity College of Law in Dublin, Ireland, where she studied, “The Prosecution of Crimes Against Humanity” and “Freedom of Speech and Press.”
Prior to law school, Howard worked eight years as an educator teaching high school physics, chemistry and biology. She was named Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers three consecutive years. Howard has also worked as a part time statistician with the Department of Agriculture in Little Rock, and as a bi-lingual claims representative for the Social Security Administration in Dallas, Texas, according to the release.
Howard is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Stephens College at Columbia, Mo. She earned a Certificate in Comparative Political and Economic Systems at the Georgetown University Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service while working in the Office of Congressman Daniel Glickman, 4th District Wichita Kansas, who was later named Secretary of Agriculture. Howard also completed summer graduate studies with New York University in Spain and speaks Spanish.
She is a board member on the Eighth Circuit Bar Association, a member of Delta Theta Phi International Legal Fraternity, and the Jefferson County Bar Association. She is a member of St. Peter Catholic Church, the St. Thomas More Legal Society, Stephens College Alumni Association and a Life Member of the Seabee Historical Society.
For details, contact the Committee To Elect Risie Howard, P.O. Box 6237, Pine Bluff, AR, 71611.