Arkansas Senate District 20 candidates trade barbs, contrast their views in Jonesboro debate

Democrat Erika Askeland (left) and Republican State Sen. Dan Sullivan (center) of Jonesboro had their first of three debates, moderated by Arkansas State University Political Science Department Chair Dr. Cameron Wimpy (right), at ASU’s First National Bank Arena on Friday, September 6, 2024. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

JONESBORO — After almost an hour of debating Arkansas State Sen. Dan Sullivan, Erika Askeland was fed up.

“I’ve never had a man try to put so many words in my mouth in one sitting,” said the Democrat running to unseat Sullivan, a Republican who has represented much of Jonesboro in the state Legislature since 2015.

Throughout the debate, the first of three planned in advance of the November election, Sullivan touted his support for income tax cuts and school vouchers, reiterated his disapproval of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and accused Askeland of “running against state policy.”

He also said he hoped to contrast his views and Askeland’s, claiming that “the state and local progressive Democrat caucus is targeting this race as a place to gain a foothold in our community.”

Askeland, a third-grade teacher in the Brookland School District, said she is vying for the District 20 Senate seat “to give you someone to vote for instead of focusing on who I’m running against.”

The candidates traded barbs and answered audience questions about issues that Sullivan has made his legislative priorities, including anti-DEI laws, public library funding and transgender youth’s ability to socially and medically transition.

Public demand for debate attendance exceeded the space available at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce building, so the venue changed this week to Arkansas State University’s First National Bank Arena, said Andrea Allen, chairwoman of NEA Political Animals, the nonpartisan group hosting the debate.

The group has only changed a debate venue one other time: in 2014, when Republican Tom Cotton was about to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, Allen said.

“This is the largest crowd we’ve had in 10 years, and it’s great to see so many people interested in who’s running for office and what they stand for,” she said. “…It’s an important race, and there are clear policy differences between the two [candidates], so there are no excuses for people who are not informed on the issues.”

The race has caught the attention of District 20 voters “because Jonesboro’s tired of this guy who can’t shut the hell up,” said Askeland’s campaign manager, Dean MacDonald, referring to Sullivan.

“On the flip side, you have people in this community that are genuinely excited to see a public educator and mother of six put this man in his place and take him to class,” said MacDonald, vice president of the Young Democrats of Arkansas.

Republican leaders in Craighead County could not be reached for comment for this article.

Sullivan served three terms in the House of Representatives before he was elected to the Senate in 2020. He is a former school principal and teacher, and his biography on the Arkansas Legislature’s website says he also worked in the healthcare industry.

Steven Summers, a scientist who wore a protective mask to the debate, said he was concerned about Sullivan’s opening statements. The senator called gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors “mutilation” and denounced COVID-19 safety measures such as masks and social distancing.

“At what point do we stop relying on facts when we’re trying to make legislation?” Summers said. “Why are we going back to feelings even though the evidence is not in our favor?”

Sullivan claimed former state Health Secretary José Romero said safety measures did not mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arkansas, particularly in schools.

Askeland said this is “a lie.” Romero publicly supported masks and vaccines to protect children from the coronavirus.

“I often tell my third-grade students and my own children: Mean what you say, say what you mean, and then sometimes simply keep your mouth closed,” Askeland said.

Education and DEI

An audience member asked both candidates if they believe teachers have an obligation to inform parents if their child asks to be called by a name and pronouns that do not match the name and gender on the child’s birth certificate. Sullivan voted for a 2023 state law that requires parental permission for children to go by different names and pronouns at school and forbids negative consequences for teachers who don’t comply with such permission.

Askeland said she follows state law in the classroom regardless of whether she agrees with it but sees the question as “a non-issue.”

Sullivan disputed this and claimed Askeland supports allowing preteen girls to have double mastectomies without parental permission, a comment that drew a negative response from the audience.

Arkansas medical professionals who treat transgender minors have said they do not give referrals for transition-related surgeries.

Askeland said this has never come up in her 23 years as a teacher and questioned whether Sullivan’s 30-plus years of education experience “were actually spent in a classroom.”

“I trust my administrators, I trust the teachers that I work alongside and I trust the parents to do what is best for their own child, not Dan Sullivan,” she said, receiving applause from the audience.

Askeland also decried the right-wing talking point that teachers “indoctrinate” students and said the real problem facing education is a lack of sufficient funding. She said the Education Freedom Account voucher program created by the Arkansas LEARNS Act, a 2023 education overhaul law, worsened the issue by directing public funds to private schools.

New report ranks Arkansas’ food insecurity rate worst in the U.S.

“We now have a funnel where private schools have raised their tuition, and when that takes place, we have drained the funds from 95% of the children that we aim to serve, that are sitting hungry in our state,” Askeland said, citing a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Wednesday that said Arkansas has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in the nation.

“That’s unacceptable, and we deserve better,” she continued.

Sullivan said school vouchers primarily help children with disabilities who do not get the services they need in public schools.

Of those participating in the first semester of the Education Freedom Account program last year, 44% of students had a disability, 31% were first-time kindergarteners and less than 5% were previously enrolled in a public school. The first year of the voucher program specifically targeted children with disabilities and kindergarteners. It will expand to include any interested students in its third year.

Additionally, Sullivan earlier this week renewed his vow to sponsor legislation next year to eliminate DEI programs at Arkansas’ colleges and universities.

He sponsored a 2023 bill that would have eliminated affirmative action at state institutions, including higher education. Askeland reminded the audience that the bill died on the House floor after bipartisan opposition.

An audience member asked what each candidate considers freedom, especially for women and minorities.

“We [lawmakers] take an oath to God to treat everybody equally,” Sullivan said. “That’s what our Constitution says: all people are created equal… If we’re going to provide special or preferential treatment based on certain characteristics, at what point does that end?”

Askeland said her teaching experience has shown her that not everyone’s lived experience is equal, especially the experiences of women and minorities compared to groups with “long historical entitlements.”

“Should we follow the Constitution? Absolutely,” she said. “Should we bend it to the whims of our desires so that we can retain power? No, we should not.”

In response, Sullivan said, “Ms. Askeland just overruled the Supreme Court,” referring to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

Libraries and taxes

Another audience member asked if libraries or state agencies ever “have too much revenue” and need less taxpayer support, referencing the successful 2022 effort to cut the property tax that funds Craighead County’s libraries in half.

Supporters claimed the library system was overfunded. It has since laid off staff and reduced its hours to adjust to the funding cut.

Sullivan supported the cut, while Askeland said she “deeply opposed” it and “will do everything” to restore the library’s previous funding.

Sullivan was the primary sponsor of Act 372 of 2023, which would alter Arkansas libraries’ processes for reconsidering material and create criminal liability for librarians who distribute content that some consider “obscene” or “harmful to minors.”

A federal judge temporarily blocked two sections of the law in July 2023 before it went into effect, and the case is scheduled for trial in October. One of the 18 plaintiffs is the Arkansas Library Association (ArLA), a nonprofit trade association that Sullivan threatened to defund last year.

ArLA receives no state funds, and Askeland pointed out that Sullivan has sometimes conflated the group with the national organization, the American Library Association.

“He’s on record not knowing the difference of who makes the rules and who he has any kind of power over, [but] he does like to exert that power,” Askeland said.

Regarding funding for state agencies, Askeland said the income tax cuts that Republican lawmakers have supported benefit only high earners, not members of the middle class.

Sullivan claimed increasing funding for education and hunger relief would result in decreasing funding for state agencies such as the departments of Corrections or Human Services.

“Where do you take the money from?” he said. “…I bet she’d even take funding from the police and put it into education. You haven’t heard anything specific about that, although if you look at her Facebook page, you’ll find those answers. The words I’ve put in [her] mouth come from her mouth.”

Askeland said she had no problem with people visiting her campaign’s Facebook page to become familiar with her views. She also said she would represent people who disagree with her, including Sullivan, if she wins.

“For a 70-something-year-old man to fixate so heavily on social media, instead of the policies that he is supposed to be employing to better the lives of Arkansans, shows me that I did the right thing by filing [to run for office] last November,” Askeland, who is 45, said in an interview after the debate.

The two candidates are scheduled to debate again on Sept. 20 and Oct. 10.