What’s happening with Little Rock City Board elections?

It’s not often that we get new city directors in Little Rock. It’s even rarer to get two at the same time. 

Longtime city directors BJ Wyrick and Ken Richardson both chose not to run for reelection this year, and a smattering of hopeful candidates are hoping to take their seats. 

Wyrick has represented Ward 7 on the city board since 1994 but is giving up her seat to run against incumbent Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who is seeking a third term. The Rev. Benny Johnson, realtor Natalie James and retired Little Rock Chief Fire Marshal Joe Gray are running to represent Ward 7, which covers part of Southwest Little Rock. 

Richardson, who has represented Ward 2 since 2006, has not been seen at a city board meeting since May 2024, attributing his absence to ongoing and serious complications with his health, and did not file for reelection. Stephanie Johnson, Tony Miller, Michael Hernandez, TaShan O’Neal and Dwight Townsend are all on the ballot

Several incumbent directors have drawn challengers as well. Ward 1 Director Virgil Miller will face Jeremiah Russell, an architect. Ward 3 Director Kathy Webb faces Lake Smith, and Ward 6 Director Andrea Lewis has a challenger in Victoria Macuil.

Nearly all of the candidates gathered Saturday at a forum hosted by the Coalition of Little Rock Neighborhoods to answer questions about hot topics including data centers, an issue that’s animating voters in Little Rock and around the country. 

We put together a quick and dirty voter’s guide to help you keep up with who’s running for what.

Early voting starts Oct. 19, and Election Day is Nov. 3. If you aren’t sure what ward you live in, check here. Check the list of early voting locations in Pulaski County here, and find your Election Day polling place here. 

Little Rock mayor

Incumbent Mayor Frank Scott Jr., seeking a third term, asks voters to let him keep building on the work his administration has done since he was first elected in 2018, pointing to falling crime rates, 14,000 new jobs in Little Rock and the expansion of community schools. Scott’s platform prioritizes public safety, economic growth and housing. Scott said he was proud Little Rock was the first city in Arkansas to propose an ordinance regulating data centers.

BJ Wyrick’s platform aligns with Scott’s on issues like public safety and economic development, but she has criticized the mayor’s approach. Wyrick, who leans more conservative than Scott, has said she wants to invest more in revitalizing Little Rock’s parks and make city government more transparent. She said she supports putting guardrails on data centers to protect citizens. 

Ward 1

Incumbent Director Virgil Miller has represented Ward 1, which covers downtown Little Rock, since 2021 and has lived in Little Rock since 1976. A Community Reinvestment Act director for Arvest Bank, Miller has worked in the financial sector since 1977. At the candidate forum, Miller said he brings financial skills to the city board. Miller supports regulations on data centers, and voted for a moratorium on their construction that failed to pass. 

Challenger Jeremiah Russell is an architect and sits on the Little Rock Planning Commission, with his term ending this year. Russell supports a more progressive zoning code in Little Rock, arguing that the city’s current zoning code is designed for suburbs, not urban development, and is a barrier to more housing being built. At the candidate forum, Russell said he thinks city leadership has grown too comfortable with how the city is being run, and wants to change the status quo and see city directors be more accountable to constituents. He supports regulating data centers. 

Ward 2

With Ken Richardson out, five people are trying to win his seat. 

Community advocate Stephanie Johnson is running on a five-point plan that prioritizes public safety, environmental health, infrastructure, economic development and education. Johnson said she supports regulating data centers. 

TaShan O’Neal, a teacher at a charter school and president of the Chicot Neighborhood Association, points to her history of community involvement and advocacy in and around Ward 2. O’Neal said her platform focuses on six issues: equity, equality, education, enforcement, empowerment and economic development. She supports regulating data centers.

Michael Hernandez, who works at the Mexican Consulate in Little Rock, said he wants to see Ward 2’s growing Latino community better represented on the city board. Hernandez, who is Latino and running a bilingual campaign in Spanish and English, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in social work and is on track to receive a master’s in international affairs this year. Hernandez wants to make it easier for developers to invest in Ward 2, build better relationships between the Little Rock Police Department and the Latino community in Southwest Little Rock and increase transparency in city operations and decision making. He supports regulating data centers. 

Retired business owner Tony Miller is a graduate of Philander Smith University and a Ward 2 resident of 46 years. He currently works as a substitute teacher in the Little Rock School District. Miller said he supports youth violence intervention programs and revitalizing vacant and abandoned buildings in Ward 2. He said he supports limits on the size of data centers and the amount of resources they can use, but added that they are a business and that he wants to have businesses in Ward 2 and the city. 

Rev. Dwight Townsend is the pastor of Longley Baptist Church and a graduate of Slidell Baptist Seminary. Townsend said he is running to “put the light back in Ward 2” and supports strong neighborhoods, safer streets and small businesses. Townsend said he supports youth intervention programs, adding that he benefitted from such programs in his youth. He also supports removing barriers to housing construction, and said he supports the city’s effort to try to regulate data centers and wants to ensure residents have a voice in data center discussions. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported earlier this year that Townsend hadn’t registered to vote in Ward 2 until late June, a fact that Hernandez dinged him for during the candidate forum. 

Ward 3 

Lake Smith is a cook at Leo’s Greek Castle, and is running against longtime incumbent Director Kathy Webb to represent Hillcrest, the Heights, Kingwood, Foxcroft and other parts of midtown on the city board. Smith has a progressive platform endorsed by the Central Arkansas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Smith supports progressive zoning laws and wants to bolster public transportation and increase protections for renters. Smith stands out as the most openly progressive candidate in city elections, and has come out hard against police surveillance and Flock cameras. One of two Gen-Z candidates for city office in Little Rock this year, Smith wants younger and working residents to have more direct representation at the city level. Smith supports regulating data centers, supports a moratorium and said she would rather the data center not be built at all. Smith, who is openly transgender, would be the first transgender city director if elected. 

Webb, a longtime fixture in Central Arkansas politics, has represented Ward 3 since 2015. She’s also a former state legislator and restaurateur. Webb points to her track record of community involvement in Ward 3 and work with nonprofits. Webb has established several citywide programs and initiatives as city director, like the Bridge To Work Program, the Food Commission and the city’s mobile grocery stores. Webb supports regulating data centers, and put forward a previous ordinance that failed to pass at the city board. Webb said she supports incentives for public-private partnerships for infill development, reducing barriers to construction and a refreshing of Little Rock’s zoning laws. 

Ward 6 

Victoria Macuil, the youngest candidate on the city ballot, is a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Macuil’s campaign website indicates she jumped into the race because city directors are making big decisions without input from residents. Macuil said she wants to bring her perspective as a young person to city government, and supports increasing transparency and public input in city operations and decision making. 

Macuil directly criticized Director Lewis and the city board’s handling of the failed data center moratorium, saying that they knew it would fail when they voted on it. She supports regulation and moratoriums, and said she worries about the longterm effects of data centers decades down the line. Macuil said she most heavily prioritizes increasing the quality of life for Ward 6 residents, and getting their input on projects and proposals. 

Incumbent Director Lewis, a vice president at First Security Bank, said she wants to continue building on the work she’s done, pointing to improvements in the city’s infrastructure, parks and public safety. Lewis said she supports removing barriers to affordable housing construction. Lewis voted for the failed data center moratorium, and said it’s important to have community voices at the table when discussing data centers, because we can’t get away from them with the prevalence of AI. 

Ward 7 

Benny Johnson is a longtime community advocate and founder of Arkansas Stop the Violence. Public safety is one of Johnson’s top priorities, and he said he views Black-on-Black violence as one of the most important issues facing Little Rock. Johnson worked for years as a security guard and assistant coach in the Little Rock School District. Johnson wants to bolster Little Rock’s youth intervention programs and improve poor public infrastructure in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. He said he is totally against data centers. 

Joe Gray, a former chief fire marshall for the Little Rock Fire Department, is running on a platform that prioritizes public safety, infrastructure and community engagement, according to his campaign website. Gray was unable to attend the candidate forum, sending his campaign manager Frederick Gentry as a proxy, who said that Gray supports more transparency in the data center proposal process and that the centers need to be heavily regulated in terms of how they impact the environment and people.

Realtor Natalie James is a former congressional candidate, running on the Democratic ticket against Sen. John Boozman in 2022. Johnson supports youth intervention programs and reducing barriers to construction to address affordable housing. She called data centers a “horrible detriment” and said we don’t need any more of them, adding that the city should prioritize existing under-resourced and underfunded parts of the city, like the fire department.