When I was growing up, two of the most Democratic states, far more so than New York or California, for example, were West Virginia and Arkansas— among the last of the Democratic Party working class bastions. No more. In 2016, 2020 and 2024 Trump won both states in landslides and both states boast solid red local trifectas. Last year, Trump beat Kamala Harris 69.97% to 28.10% in West Virginia and 64.20% to 33.56% in Arkansas.

However, there is a little something stirring in the northwest corner of the state— the 3rd district, which includes Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Bentonville. The PVI is R+13 and it doesn’t look like a likely place for Arkansans to begin to shrug off their fascist yoke. But… a couple months ago, an old friend from Vote Common Good, Robb Ryerse, called and told me he was considering running against incumbent Steve Womack, a garden variety right-wing Republican.

A local pastor, Robb is a pretty progressive guy but I didn’t ask him pretty progressive questions. I already know where he stands on those kinds of questions. I wanted to talk with him about questions Democrats find much more difficult to confront these days— like the Israeli genocide in Gaza. And he wanted to think some more about it. So he did. Recently, Robb reported those very Arkansans who supported Trump in such heavy numbers that

“This week we have learned that an investigation into Israel’s own classified intelligence has exposed what many of us already knew in our hearts. At least 83 percent of those killed in Gaza are civilians.” It was a start, an essential one. “Entire generations,” he wrote, “are being wiped out and an entire population is being targeted simply for existing in their own land.”

He was just getting started. “At a recent event, a woman asked me about Gaza. I told her plainly that what is happening to the Palestinian people is genocide. She looked at me and said, ‘You’ll say that to me, but will you say it out there?’ So, this is me saying it out here, out loud, for everyone to hear: Yes, it is genocide. It is being perpetuated by Israel’s extremist government through their relentless bombardment, siege, and displacement of the Palestinian people, funded with American dollars and armed with American bombs. You won’t hear my opponent say these words.

Steve Womack has voted for every single arms package to Israel, sending American bombs and taxpayer dollars to fuel this devastation. He has even put it in writing that he rejects the word genocide, choosing instead to smear young people who dare to protest mass murder of civilians as ‘pro-terror, antisemitic mobs.’ I doubt it will surprise you to learn that Womack has taken over $140,000 from AIPAC and the rest of their ideological allies— more than any of his Arkansas peers in the House. And it is not only Republicans.

Too many Democrats have chosen the safety of political cover over the courage to name what is happening. They let AIPAC set the terms of debate. They expect us to look away from what our money and our weapons are doing in Gaza. They ask us to pretend we do not see.”

That’s what I expected from Robb, what I expect from all credible Democratic candidates.

“As a faith leader with decades behind the pulpit, I cannot stay silent. Scripture tells us in Proverbs, ‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.’ That is what I chose to do and what we all should choose to do. Faith must walk beside the suffering, or it becomes a hollow word. To remain silent in the face of mass killing is to be complicit in it. This is the most glaring moral test of our generation, and Steve Womack has failed it utterly. We need leaders who will name genocide when it is happening, who will stop sending weapons to fuel it, and who will place human life above political calculation. I am running for Congress to give this district a voice that will not shrink from moral clarity.”

And this was no hit and run job. A week later, Robb was taking on the golden calf. He roundly denounced Trump’s deranged comments about “some” Americans wanting a dictator. Trump, wrote Robb, “meant every word. Dictators rarely announce themselves so plainly, but when they do it is because they believe the ground has already been prepared. This is how the preparation works: you take the largest cities in the country— Chicago, New York, Los Angeles— and you speak of them as war zones. You call them 'killing fields' as Trump said about Chicago. You convince the public that these places, filled with millions of American citizens, are no longer communities but battlefields. Once people believe that, the presence of soldiers with live ammunition feels less like an outrage and more like a solution. Authoritarian leaders throughout history have cloaked ambition in the language of duty. They create chaos, then insist that only their hand can restore order. The danger is not only in Trump’s words but in the silence that surrounds them.”

He reminded his readers that “Womack served three decades in the Arkansas National Guard. He knows the oath soldiers take. He knows what it means to hand live rounds to men and women told to patrol American streets. He understands that a military turned inward on its people is the sign of a democracy in collapse. Yet he says nothing, because silence keeps him in good standing with Trump and with the party that fears him.”

“The shame, wrote Robb, “belongs not only to the man who seizes power but to the many who stood aside and let him. I am running for Congress because Arkansas deserves a representative who will not look away. Trump has told us where he intends to go. Womack has already decided he will not resist.”

Robb won't be getting any financial assistance from AIPAC Shakur (House Leader Hakeem Jeffries) or the corporate wing of the Democratic Party he represents. It's up to him and his neighbors and those of us who can help.

You can help here on the Flip Congress page.
I hope you do.