A week into early voting, Democratic State Rep. Alex Holladay is still campaigning nonstop, knocking on doors after work, shaking hands at fall festivals and calling on-the-fence voters. He took a week off to mourn the recent death of his father, and has since returned to the campaign trail.
Holladay, who represents parts of North Little Rock and Sherwood, famously flipped District 70 from red to blue during a special election in March, the first Democrat to do so in central Arkansas in 15 years. The seat was vacated by Republican Carlton Wing, who left to steer Arkansas PBS. His victory made national headlines, with some pundits seeing it as early evidence of a blue wave in the midterms.
Since March, Holladay has survived his first fiscal session. He’s scored a prime parking spot and says he’s loving the grind, even if he’s hit a limit on free barbecue lunches. A program manager at UAMS by day, Holladay is now preparing to go to battle for Medicaid expansion and to boost payments to rural hospitals when the regular session begins in January. He thinks cities and towns should have local control over data centers, too.
But first he has to win again. Out-of-state contributions and PAC money have jumped for his Republican opponent, Bo Renshaw, with the Koch, Inc. PAC donating, as well as the Entergy Employees Corporation PAC and the Arkansas LEARNS Political Action Committee. Republicans hope to flip the seat, and Holladay warns of Democrats being lulled into thinking his seat is safe.
We sat down with the candidate to hear his prognostications of another blue wave on Nov. 3 and why he thinks even Republicans are listening to his message this time around.
AT: What are you hearing on the campaign trail, and have conversations changed since your victory in the special election in March?
Holladay:It’s different in a few different ways. In 2024 [Editor’s note: Holladay first ran for the House District 70 seat in 2024, losing to opponent Carlton Wing], that last month, we had so much momentum. Conversations were amazing. Our message was pretty clean. We were running on a message of, “The LEARNS Act needs a lot of work, Sarah’s out of control,” things like that. We realized the pushback against Sarah, and it’s even more so this time. Before it was, “Yeah, I’ll vote for you.” This time, it’s, “I can’t wait to go vote.” People are mad, they’re pissed, and I’ve just seen that attitude change.
AT: What are the main issues pissing people off and motivating them to vote?
Holladay: It’s cost. Average Arkansas families paid an extra $4,200 over the last 18 months. As a state rep, I can’t control gas prices or grocery prices, but can help with insurance. We can do something about utility costs, and we can help with health care costs. Health care is No. 1. Not only is it access, but it’s cost. Even in our district, even though we’re urban, people are concerned about the rural health crisis going on. A lot of these folks are from outside of North Little Rock and Sherwood. There’s a lot of transplants. They get that.
I try to inform them, like, “Hey, this is what I help with at my daily job.” And I tell them this is the first piece of legislation we need to offer. We have to up our reimbursement rates for our hospitals, or people just aren’t going to get care.
AT: And what are you hearing from Republicans?
Holladay: It’s really the same conversation. The funny thing, being a Democrat, I never thought I’d be able to complain about government overreach. Like, Democrats are big government, right? Not in Arkansas. Republicans are big government.
I do my normal spiel. I’m really big on senior care and health care costs, really big on universal pre-K and let’s help our public schools out. They’re underfunded. But with Republicans, if that doesn’t hammer home, it’s like, well, what about more transparency in our government? Because you know, Sarah tried to gut the FOIA law. Sarah tried to build a prison that no one wanted, and is still trying to build a prison. That’s the hinge point, I think, for Republicans: She’s going to do whatever she wants.
I tell them to give me a chance to push back against Sarah, because my opponent will not do that. He’ll be a yes vote for whatever she needs and whatever he wants to do, and it rings true with people.
The funny thing, being a Democrat, I never thought I’d be able to complain about government overreach. Like, Democrats are big government, right? Not in Arkansas. Republicans are big government.
Democratic State Rep. Alex Holladay
AT: Your opponent Bo Renshaw has come out swinging and is more organized this time around. What do you make of that?
Holladay: I think they thought they could just win the special [election] without doing much, and that was clearly not true. We outworked them during the special. That was easy. We didn’t see him out and about much. Now my opponent is working his tail off. They’ve outspent us for sure. We’re not far away in money. We’re one of the few races in the state of Arkansas, as a Democrat, that’s really close to their opponent as far as [fundraising]. But outside money has poured into this race. I mean, the Koch brothers have even donated. They want the seat back. That’s pretty obvious.
AT: Are you concerned?
Holladay: Yeah, of course. We’re going to win a close race. I still feel like we will win a close race. I mean, the early returns tell me that, and I’ve thought that for a few weeks. A lot of people think this is a safe seat. I don’t agree whatsoever with that because North Little Rock, well, North Little Rock and Sherwood District 70 is truly purple. North Little Rock, pretty blue. You get into Indian Hills, it’s blue, but they don’t vote. You get into Sherwood, it is red as red can be. And that’s where I mean I spent two months basically in the summer dying of heat exhaustion and talking to Republicans about this race and trying to swing their vote.
I spent two months basically in the summer dying of heat exhaustion and talking to Republicans about this race and trying to swing their vote.
Alex Holladay
AT: Your previous victory was really seen as part of like a blue wave, both in Arkansas and around the country. What lessons do you hope Arkansas Democrats have learned from your race?
Holladay: I truly believe, probably other than Hallie Shoffner‘s team, we have the best team in the state, and we’re just a small race. We’re still knocking doors, we’re still calling and we’re still waving, and we got a lot of help in March. But we also had a cheat code in March. We knew we didn’t have to knock a single Republican door, and we could win because, with the Republican primary ticket, there was nothing that was going to draw them out to vote, whereas Democrats, we could pull them out.
I know it got Democrats excited because it’s like the first time in 15 years a seat has been flipped in Central Arkansas from red to blue. I know it jazzed up some other campaigns. I wish more races were like ours because the only thing I think we really taught people is if you do the work, you’ll get rewarded.
AT: And doing the work means …?
Holladay: Direct voter contact. Some campaigns talk about knocking on 1,000 doors; you need to talk about how you’ve knocked 5,000 doors. We also have a great granny brigade that calls, and I follow up there if they’re leaning or they haven’t made up their minds. I’ll either follow them up with a call or a knock, and try to push them home on our side. And it’s just, it is so personal. It really is.
Eric Higgins, the sheriff, his wife, saw me putting out a sign. I think that was for one of our primaries. It wasn’t even for the general election. She’s like, oh, you’re just like my husband putting out your own signs, you’re gonna win because of that. But my campaign manager Katie Rhodes tries to take things off my plate because you’ll just burn yourself out. I’m the idiot that doesn’t sit still. I got it from my mother. I cannot help it. I can’t sit in a place.
AT: Assuming you win, what will be your focus in the state legislature next year?
Holladay: January is all going to be Medicaid expansion and extension, meaning ARHome. It’s going to be the 200,000 Arkansans who will not have health care. That is going to be the giant fight. Increasing our reimbursement rate for rural hospitals. It’s going to take over January and February.
I’m curious where data centers will go. I don’t think the legislature is going to be able to control itself and actually allow for local control. I hope that is our practice because counties and cities need to make those decisions for themselves.
AT: What’s been the biggest surprise about being in the state legislature?
Holladay: It’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And they do respect the hustle. It’s hard to know from the outside. You see a candidate knock at your door. Just know if they’re doing it correctly, they’re dying [laughs], because it really doesn’t stop. I mean, I’m still working full time, obviously. Yeah. And in the room, they really respect that. Our speaker, Brian Evans, is a wonderful man, and when I got sworn in, he said, “Do you want to make some remarks?” I’m like, “Yeah, I’ll be brief.” He goes, “Take all the time you need. You earned it.” And I’ve just thought about that a lot.
AT: I’m also curious about the everyday life of a legislator. Do you fight over parking spots and do you get free food?
Holladay: Parking spots are assigned. I got a great spot. I got lucky because I got slotted in, so I literally just took Carlton [Wing]’s spot. I took his amazing parking spot. I took his committees that don’t really meet, which was nice as a new legislator. January will be different, assuming we win.
And of course, a fiscal session is different. It’s only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It’s not a heavy schedule. But I went to every meeting I could because I wanted to learn and just get to know everyone I could, and I got a little tired by the fourth week because it was, okay, 9 a.m. budget, hang out, do your thing. Session will start at 1 p.m. So, after budget, talk, get to meet people, or just bullshit, let’s be honest. And then, oh, this group is putting on our lunch. It’s a lot of barbecue, and then, hey, here’s cocktail hour at this event, and Walmart’s putting on this or the state chamber is doing this. By the end of it, I just wanted to go have lunch with my wife. I’m kind of an “on” personality anyway. But you’re on all day, and then you just want to crash.
AT: How do you reset when you get home?
Holladay: Usually my girls are running around, but if there’s a time when the girls aren’t home before school, I will literally sit in my chair and put on music.
AT: Do you have an album or song that’s been getting you through the campaign?
Holladay: Honestly, since my dad passed, I’ve been listening to a lot of Willie Nelson and a lot of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music by Ray Charles. It gets me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
