Black Democratic candidates talk politics during first Blue Porch Brunch

Several local Black Democratic candidates, from municipal to federal, gathered on the front porch of a house on Chester Street on Thursday morning for the first Blue Porch Brunch, where they discussed politics and the coming election. 

Herbert Boykin, a campaign advisor to Little Rock Board of Directors Ward 7 candidate Rev. Benny Johnson, hosted the brunch on the front porch of his aunt’s home south of downtown Little Rock. Johnson is hoping to claim the seat being vacated by BJ Wyrick, a 32-year veteran of city government who is not seeking reelection to the board because she’s running for mayor instead. Former Little Rock Fire Chief Joe Gray and realtor Natalie James are also running to represent Southwest Little Rock in the Ward 7 seat.

“I put this event together to come together and converse on politics and some things that we’re moving forward with the early election,” Boykin said. “That’s all just to bring us together and exchange notes and see what we can do to make this city a lot better.” 

Boykin said he hopes to make the gathering an annual event. 

Johnson; congressional candidate Chris Jones; gubernatorial candidate Sen. Fred Love (D-Little Rock); Pulaski County judge candidate and former Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen; and Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who is running for reelection, mingled for a little under an hour over plates of eggs, pancakes, shrimp and grits and a smattering of other brunch staples. 

Johnson, a dogged advocate for safe streets who founded Arkansas Stop the Violence in 1981, said public safety is his number one priority and that his decades of experience in community organizing and activism set him apart from other candidates. 

“Little Rock, year in year out, ranks as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. In fact, it’s been known to be worse than Los Angeles and Chicago, Illinois, and we’re trying to eliminate the stigma on the city, and that’s the number one prerogative,” Johnson said. 

He added that he wants to improve training for police officers responding to mental health crises, bolster the city’s youth mentoring initiatives, and reestablish the Little Rock chapter of the OK Program, a defunct Little Rock Police Department program intended to mentor Black boys and reduce the homicide rate among Black men and boys. 

Johnson also said he wants to reduce urban blight, and invest in better infrastructure in the neighborhoods south of Interstate 630. 

“If the owners are not going to take care of those houses, give them a warning, buy the houses, and let it be used for low-income families, where they can afford it and it’ll be reasonable for them to stay in,” Johnson said. 

Jones, who made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2022, is running to represent Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District against incumbent Rep. French Hill (R-Little Rock). He said small events like Blue Porch Brunch are important. 

“Every vote matters. Everything’s local. I actually think one of the problems with Congress now is that they are so disconnected from local,” Jones said. “I would argue that we should probably expand the number of congressional members because right now each congressional member represents almost a million people. I don’t think that was the intention, ever. I believe that we need to be more local.” 

The 2nd Congressional District, which covers parts of Little Rock and northern Central Arkansas, has a population of about 773,000, according to census data. 

“The big rallies are great, but the real work is in the intimate small settings, where you can hear people’s stories, where they can tell you what they want, what they don’t want, and that’s that’s why I’m here,” Jones said Thursday. 

He also said he wants “to get out of this war [with Iran], to lower gas prices,” and “to have actual healthcare.”

Love, who is currently running against Sarah Sanders for the governorship, said it’s a different race this time, and that many Arkansans, particularly in rural areas, tell him they feel forgotten.

“When Sarah Sanders first came in, nobody knew exactly what she was going to do. Now she has a record,” Love said. “This is just a totally different race, because people are hurting worse than they were hurting then.”

Love said he would issue an executive order to end Arkansas’ school voucher program, officially known as the Education Freedom Account program, if elected. 

“We were told that it was about choice, but 95% of the kids that were receiving EFAs were already enrolled [in private schools],” Love said. 

He added that addressing food insecurity, Arkansas’ maternal mortality rate and investing in Medicaid are his top priorities. 

Griffen, who won the Democratic nomination for Pulaski County judge over current County Judge Barry Hyde in March, is running against Republican Michael Rushin. In Arkansas, county judges do not preside over courts, but are the top administrative officials at the county level.

“This is the first of October. Early voting starts in 18 days, and so the idea is we presume that until 7:30 on the 3rd of November, everything, I mean everything, is possible, and that means everything can go wrong,” Griffen said. He added that his campaign is going well, but he isn’t taking anything for granted.

Hyde vetoed a quorum court ordinance last week that would have placed regulations on large-scale data centers in Pulaski County. The ordinance initially passed 11-4. Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood said the court intends to override the veto. 

Griffen, who backed the ordinance and has made regulating data centers a tenet of his campaign, said he wasn’t surprised by Hyde’s veto, but expects the override to pass. 

Griffen said getting the county’s fiscal situation in order is another priority. 

Pulaski County is currently in the midst of an independent financial audit. The quorum court passed an emergency ordinance in April that moved $42 million into the county’s general fund after County Treasurer Debra Buckner announced that the county was facing a $9 million deficit, and might not be able to make payroll for some employees. 

“There’s no way in the world we can have a solid county that takes care of our workforce, that deals with issues involving the county and its future, if we don’t get our fiscal house in order,” Griffen said. “We don’t know what we don’t know, because the county judge administration has been anything but transparent. So that’s a big issue.” 

Griffen added that he looks forward to people voting during the coming election cycle. 

“Early voting starts on the 19th. I want as many folks as possible on the first day and every day after until the third of November,” he said.