Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KKUAR FM 89.

And hello again everyone.

Thanks for joining us.

Our Kansans already casting their ballots, those of a mine too, and few would argue that the action most of it is on the Republican primary ballot.

That said, the loyal opposition very much a part of this year's politicking, reserving most of its fire.

Though for the November campaign, a bit later in the broadcast, by the way, a decidedly nonpolitical report on an Arkansas family that's making an.

Impact on food markets Coast to coast.

But up top 2 old Happy Warriors from the left.

Democratic strategist Michael Cook and from the right a Republican counterpart in the person of Bill Vickery, gentleman.

Thanks again for for coming aboard.

Once again, the suspense seems to be bearable at the top of the ticket anyway.

But let's anyway, let's run the races and see what happens.

So Bill, let's start with the Republican gubernatorial primary.

They would seem to be with all respect, not a whole lot of a primary.

Not much, not much barn and earthquake, and even then.

I think Sarah Sanders is clearly the the the real suspense becomes can she break the 80% number that?

Would she get more than say, a Chinese premier usually gets in his election?

She gets north of 80 then that that'll be an impressive showing and how much turn out does she actually drive to the polls?

Because that's the real question.

People that want to show up and vote for her giving her national notoriety given her position on in in Arkansas.

Does she Dr voters to the polls that then affect other races and Michael on the Democratic side?

So yeah, you got Democratic.

We have four or five.

I forget exactly how many people that are running.

But Chris Jones is clearly going to be the Democratic nominee talk business recently did a poll and he's at 59%, so he probably wins this thing without a runoff.

And then we'll face Sarah Sanders in the fall.

So that will be an interesting race to watch.

And worth noting that mandatory, noting that her fundraising advantage is just incredible, it's not even going to be.

Just when it comes to fun, she's she is gonna look for ways to burn money and she just has she because she can't hold on to it.

So and Chris Jones, I don't think we'll have.

I question if we'll have the financial resources to compete.

So you're going to see a lot of you've seen a lot of Sarah Sanders ads now you're going to see even more exactly in your mailboxes, your Facebook page, whatever she's going to be all over it.

And Lieutenant governor says now this one gets spicy bill.

It becomes a matter of if.

If Leslie Rutledge the current.

Sitting Attorney General can win without a runoff, and you've got this many candidates as you see on the field.

I mean, it's a it's a basketball team with one off the bench.

You know what I mean?

It's a lot of folks in the race, and so it really boils down to in the polling that we've seen, is she's teetering right there close.

And then these guys collectively stacking up.

And if she doesn't get to 50%, what does that mean?

Who then wins the battle below her?

The knife fight that has occurred.

It's been the most.

Intense, I think of all the campaigns I tend to think at the end of the night though she gets to she gets if not there.

She gets very close and then it's then we see where we go in a runoff.

Yeah and and guys it does not say in that race.

Certainly there doesn't seem to be a great ideological divide among.

I mean they all agree on everything.

There's really no big differences.

It's I think at the end of the day it's Leslie Rutledge either she wins outright or she's guaranteed a runoff spot and everybody else is just trying to come in #2.

That's that's just what it just hold her down to below 50 and then maybe something quirky happens in the runoff weeks later.

So that's you know Chris Greg Bledsoe.

I think his name is is going after egg.

Both Leslie Rutledge and Jason Rapert trying to knock both of theirs numbers down to try to slip into second place.

So we'll see how that would battle.

There is for 2nd place and and and enough of a second place to make a difference to create a runoff.

Yeah, Miss Rutledge being term limited, the state will need a chief legal officer and that contest.

Underway again, you've got a clear favorite on the Republican side.

Yes, Tim Griffin.

It's just a matter of how big is the number.

He's clearly out in front does he?

Does he get above 75% or 80%?

I mean look, these are these are statewide races.

He's very well known he served as a congressman, served as a Lieutenant governor for the last eight years, clearly in touch with a lot of his constituencies throughout the state.

Fundraising advantage name ID advantage.

You know this is a well, it's just a minute.

Again, it's a matter of 75% or something like that.

Cartoon like numbers, but they're real.

The only thing I would I would add to that is just a random factoid that Tim Griffin's opponent, Leon Jones, is the brother of Chris Jones, the eventual Democratic nominee for governor.

So just a real family dynamic.

But yes, Tim Griffin's going to win going to win big.

It's not even going to be close.

You occasionally see these familiar ideological splits right?

Exactly so, and they're always kind of fun to watch.

the US Senate race.

We ought to take.

Take that one because that's a big ticket.

I mean, I've been here.

Bill will know more about the public private.

Yeah, well again, I think that's a matter of setting US Senator John Bozeman, who President Trump has endorsed.

This is a matter of does collectively to the three candidates that oppose him.

Specifically Jake Beckett, probably the leading candidate of the three.

Are they able to whittle enough off of of John Bozeman so that he ends up in the high 40s?

Forty eight, 4950?

You know polling has him again right there.

close it's a matter, then of maybe you might have a matter of a few thousand votes that could determine whether there's a runoff there or not, and that will be a big deal in the national scene, if indeed there is a runoff.

Yeah, you know, it's all about Ken Bozeman.

Win without a runoff.

What's interesting is that his 2nd place of post opponent Jake Beckett is, after all, the money's only been has been spent.

He's only like at 19% in a poll that came out about a week or so ago.

Again from talk business, I think Bozeman.

Probably pulls it over to get that 50 + 1 magic Mark.

He's not made anybody mad.

He's got Trump's endorsement.

Sarah Sanders for him.

Tom Cotton is for him.

I I think there's a good chance he might win it, but you know, maybe you know these things get quirky at times.

Towards the end.

What are the curious things about Mr Bozeman situation?

Is that after going on to almost, I guess 20 years in federal service Dave Statewide 6 years now 12 years.

Now in in statewide Republican office that he's not running a little bit better than he does.

This is this is kind of a replay where he was six years the way he always is.

He's always been low key.

He's not a particularly he votes.

Exactly how the Republicans want him to vote, but he's always been low key.

He's not a flamethrower, not a bomb thrower.

Just sort of does his job and votes.

And every time we see it over and over again, these are what his numbers and every time he always pulls it out at the end, so maybe this would be a replay of the past elections.

Yeah, for for all the the yelling and screaming that we want for a consensus builder and a quiet, mild mannered person who can work with.

Those sides and all of that, I mean, listen his record as a conservative is unquestioned.

There's no doubt about that in terms of his voting record and how he's LED in Washington.

But this is a guy who's very quiet and mild manner that is his style.

He does reach him.

Yes, that's him exactly.

So he's not being phony.

That's just the way that it is.

And maybe it says a little something about us that we need somebody to come out and we we criticize him for doing exactly what we want to say.

We want right?

And we're in a High Sierra anyway.

In terms of our party, well.

The Democratic primary too.

Yeah, who knows who wins, but I mean it's you know, Natalie James and Jack Foster and Dan Whitfield Natalie James I don't know.

Might win it, but at the end of the day, we know how the sadly we know how the the general election is going to go, whoever the Republican nominee for the US Senate is, we just these candidates don't have the resources or the, you know organization, Democrats the democratic side they're trying, but it's just not happening in the Secretary of State, yeah?

Have the Democrats you have two candidates Josh Price versus Anna Gorman, Josh for Full disclosure with my clients.

So doing a little work for him, we'll see how that one plays out.

That's the only you know, race of any kind of interest on the democratic side on the statewide level, because the governor is already decided.

And then the Republican side John Thurston seems to be doing well in the polling, like at 48%.

Eddie Joe really doesn't really made any real traction or really got anywhere, so we'll see how that one turned.

This is another one of those down ballot races where the incumbent has had a period of time to work inside, and John Thurston in this particular on in this particular race.

It's been Secretary of State.

I think he's doing something that's very smart from a campaign standpoint.

He's touting the effectiveness of the previous election here in Arkansas.

That's what the Secretary of State is in charge of.

He's highlighting the fact that, hey, we did this.

We did this without a problem, and unlike the rest of the country, which I think is a subtle but a very powerful message for him.

I think he carries a day on election night, right?

Yeah?

And practically anybody who's anybody is cozying up to the former president, not cozying up.

I mean, they are.

It is a I in American politics.

I've never seen anything like this where no matter if you have a picture with Trump, whether he endorsed you or not, you're using it on your mail piece on your Facebook ads.

It's cult, like and in terms of, you have to have that Trump stamp of approval to get anywhere in a Republican primary in Arkansas nowadays.

I mean, Sarah Sanders probably gets to be governor just because Trump says.

I want this person, you know, Leslie riders had to drop out.

Tim Griffin.

Griffin had to drop out of the race so I've never seen anything like that.

And as Bill pointed out, every every Bozeman advertisement has the name Trump on the screen at least five times.

Did I happen to mention Trump is for me?

You know, kind of yeah, yeah, well listen, the shadow of Donald Trump looms large over Arkansas politics all the way down to dog catcher.

And and you're talking about a guy that got north of 60% in the last presidential election here.

Clearly a popular figure, and I think that's something about.

Arkansas politics, where he's able to reach out to blue collar voters who now identify as Republican in the state primarily because of cultural issues and whatnot.

But they they have, they they have moved to the Donald Trump side of the Republican Party as well as others more mainstream conservatives, and so look his his his impact on party politics here and in a number of other states around the country is very significant.

But yeah, we are.

I think ourselves five or eight states that gave Mr. Trump in two 2020 a bigger.

Margin that it did four years earlier.

Yes.

Ohh it's it's.

This is the the state likes Trump, which is why every Republican candidate does everything they can to be their trump, like or say they have Trump's endorsement everywhere.

Yeah, the political class of course is looking at.

There are more hot, maybe more hot legislative races.

Yeah, than I can recall basically because they are intraparty contest Bill.

Yeah, well and that's where the family fights are always the meanest, and that's what I think.

We're seeing statewide siblings.

Are I mean, these state Senate and State House races have become very intense.

The messaging is very intense both in the Democratic primaries as well as in the Republican primaries.

And I I can speak to that.

It's it's become quite a battle and you see a number of these races scattered around the state that are really, I think bellwethers for where the Republican Party is ideologically ideological.

Yeah, I mean you, you see populism versus Mainstreet.

Consider Mitt Romney sort of conservatism.

Listen, and nobody wants to be Mitt Romney.

Believe me.

Well yeah Chamber of Commerce yeah yeah yeah he's a dad.

Well the Mitt Romney types have to pretend that they're not, you know they they they have to.

They have to play the dance and play the game to try to get a wonder he got out of Utah.

But at any rate.

In in terms of democratic races, let's run the legislative races.

What are you looking at on the legislative side?

They're not that many.

You know.

Hotly contested legislative races?

There's a a race in East Arkansas.

You have representative original Murdoch trying to take over Keith, Ingram's open state Senate seat.

There's a couple here, one or two in Pulaski County, but they're not particularly as hot as they are on the Republican side.

Some of these races you pretty much already know who's going to win, so unfortunately, for Democrats.

All the excitement seems to be on the other side in the in the in these primaries, so hopefully that we have we do have a good crop of legislative candidates in the fall who are going to be fighting it out in Northwest Arkansas Central Arkansas trying to trying to beat Republicans, and we're looking at 22 legislative races, House and Senate on the basis of a new districts which have been upheld.

So South Arkansas here in Conway and Faulkner County race Senator Johnson's seat up in Northwest Arkansas.

And some real Barnburners.

You're right, Steve demographics have changed the every decade.

There's a reset in Arkansas politics because of population shifts, and because of the way we redistrict for for decade upon decade, it was an internal fight inside the Democratic Party.

This is the first time in in Arkansas political history where you've seen Republicans control the redistricting process from start to finish.

And so all the fights now are internal to the Republican side of things.

So every seat is up.

As it turns out, it hits nicely with the Mars and Venus aligns, so all the constitutional officers are up a Senate seat is up, and that's made for all this intensity.

A shift fully a third of the Senate will be new and almost a third of the House will be new when we start in January of 23.

So big changeover, a lot of you know, we'll see who the Republicans nominate.

Will it be kind of the Chamber of Commerce types or who who fake it and try to be the Trump types?

Or or will it be the Trump?

You know what the legislature is going to look like?

This is.

More than just, you know, cocktail chatter because we got a session coming up in January and we'll have a new governor whoever and it got a bit particularly in the Senate.

It got a bit poisonous over the last couple of years in terms of moving policy.

I think this next session will be nothing like we've ever seen before.

Sarah Sanders, the likely governor, you know, with her, you know her agenda.

That's clear.

She has national ambitions, so she's going to try to do whatever she can to kind of play.

Kind of the.

Ron De Santis model trying to take on those kind of issues to kind of raise her national profile cultural.

Yeah, because she's gonna be running for Vice president, U.S. Senate or something.

One day she this is not her final stop in terms of what our our ambitions are.

So we're going to see a lot of courageousness bills.

January, I would like to touch on that because I do think there's a lot more synergy inside the Republican Party than we're talking about most of the cultural issues are from a defensive posture, and I think it is fair.

It's fair to have a debate about how these national issues.

Have been over the last couple of decades in Democratic administrations.

Through the bureaucracy, they have forced these sorts of issues on the States and so I do see a defensive posture by Republicans to March out and say we've got to pass laws and I don't think it's wrong to take a defensive posture from the way the federal government is enacting.

If that if that guy in in Philly doesn't jump in that pool and win a national championship as a woman in the NCAA, we don't have these kind of laws that we saw passed in the last legislative session.

So I think it's fair to have that debate because it is a reaction to the extremely far left posture that the National Democratic Party is taking in an attempt to implement that agenda around the country.

Michael, I'll give you the last word, far left extreme.

No, I think this this is all about.

People who wanting to use these cultural issues for their own ambition, and this is exactly what Sarah Sanders will do in the upcoming sessions, all about trying to get nationally.

She doesn't care about these issues, she she just knows it gets her on Fox News gets her bunch of publicity fighting these cultural wars and how you get the Republican nomination for vice president or maybe even president.

Well, now I've got to give 15 seconds to Mr Victory.

This is gonna I will disagree with Michael and say this.

I do think these are issues that you do see the National Democratic Party pushing and I think it is legitimate for a state to want to push back if they so choose all right?

Got into there.

We're simply out of time.

Guys come back soon.

I know you will and we will be right back with good routes.

Farm to market, sure, but how about farm to table?

We'll take a look at Rabbit Ridge Farms in this month's Good route segment.

Major funding for good roots is provided by Arkansas Farm Bureau, Arkansas Farm Bureau advocating the interests of Arkansas's largest industry for more than 80 years.

Arkansas counts on agriculture, agriculture counts on Farm Bureau additional funding for good routes provided by the Union Pacific Foundation.

He just loves being rubbed behind that ear.

They have kids and kids and adults come from all over to see O. Eric Eric the wonder Pig.

My daughter saved him when he was just a little baby piglet.

He literally would fit in the palm of your hand.

My name is Alan Mayhan own and operate Rabbit Ridge Farms with my wife Angela.

We do things kind of like our grandparents did.

We're regenerative farmers so we raised beef, hogs and chickens all on pasture.

Hog pens aren't supposed to be beautiful man, you just look around here and you can see the the fresh grass where we've created the silver pasture.

We put animals out here that can thrive in this environment without eliminating the environment.

If you come to the farm, you're going to see wide open pastures.

You're going to see animals behaving the way animals are supposed to behave in their natural environment.

All of our animals.

What makes them so unique, is the fact they're eating so many different species of plants, and all of those micronutrients are coming back in the meat that you eat from our farm.

On the farm we have, we have to wear a lot of different hats.

There are days that I think why can I not get what I need to get done, done?

And it's because the list of what I need to get done is quite long.

The shipping and when we we ship our product across the country, booking events stocking the kitchen, making sure the animals are fed, the pastures are rotated.

We have lodging at the farm we do farm tours.

We do farm schools the majority of social media is actually.

Allen he says he's like a 14 year old girl every morning.

He gets so excited.

Can I show you my video and we'll put it up on the screen like it's you know, a big premiere Rabbit Ridge farms, cheesy chicken, rice, and broccoli casserole.

The cheesy chicken and rice broccoli in the oven.

I thought you were taking a picture.

No, I'm talking.

I'm doing a cooking video.

It just is not quite like you're cooking video.

Rapper Ridge Farms is unique because it is actually a farm you can visit.

That's not the norm with most farms.

I grew up on a row crop farm where if you saw someone on the property you were making your way over there, finding out why and making sure they were quickly escorted off.

It really went against everything that we knew.

Oh, we're going to bring people to the farm.

The farmers say what we believe in complete transparency.

We want to make sure our customers and our our patrons know how we raise our animals, so we welcome them to come to the farm.

Literally thousands of people every year we're able to teach children, adults, whoever where their food comes from.

I'm proud to be a 6th generation farmer, and with Angela, we're able to continue traditions and farming methods that I feel like hold true to what the generations in front of me held valuable to them.

I'm gonna talk just a little bit about Angela.

It's awesome to still be in love at 54.

Angela is the consummate partner.

She's the one that patched my leg when she sees me getting worked up.

Angela was the wife of my best friend.

So.

You know, if you're watching the video on this, you know there's probably.

The scratch of the needle.

So I started dating Drew Blankenship when I was in.

Just recently graduated from college and he introduced me to his best friends who were Alan Mahan and his wife.

His first wife was that guy that became a best friend the first time he met him.

We both liked to hunt fish.

And so you know, there were times we were croppie fishing in the spring that we should have been in class or we went all over the country hunting fishing eight days before Drew died.

Alan was at our house hunting.

We went on.

That was his last duck hunt and he was ill and we knew he was ill but we did not know how gravely ill he was.

So six days later Alan came back to the hospital with me and was with me when he died.

And spoke at his funeral.

And I know when I say that people I I can see their mind racing because who's wouldn't that sounds?

You know, as my kids did back in the day, that's weird.

And we were just very, very close friends, made very close family, friends and Fast forward through life, which left me as a widow and he was divorced.

And life happens, and we found ourselves fallen in love.

The only person that could comfort me was Angela.

Find somebody to love and you know the rise back out of the ashes.

You know, you know she made me feel like a phoenix.

I don't know what life would be like if if I wasn't with Alan.

I wasn't married to Alan because he can tell stories that I don't even know to our boys about their dad.

I got to fulfill something that I promised my best friend and I told him that I would see after his family.

And I would make sure that his voice was raised.

Our motto is creating community through Food and Agriculture.

We have dinners and breakfast.

We bring local entertainment.

And it's a really unique experience to come to one of our events.

The fact that we are able to come together as a group on a random Friday night and provide an experience an unforgettable experience for folks that don't, don't get to have that on on a regular basis.

That is very important to us.

We serve the food that we grow here on this farm, through our restaurant and our venue.

Our wait staff, our kitchen staff our cleaning staff falls into just a few categories, friends and family.

Every one of them.

The floor man.

I guarantee he has stopped at every table.

He is checked to make sure that you're having a good time finding out where you're from learning something about you.

We want to make sure that everybody feels 100% welcome no matter what walk of life they come from.

Our country is so diverse I would never want anybody to ever feel like they were left out on my farm.

That table is yours all night.

There's no table turnover.

We don't have another group coming in in an hour.

We want you to come and stay all night.

Like Willie says, stay all night, stay a little longer, dance all night, dance a little longer.

Food is a is a means of of sharing of giving of loving.

We care about our animals.

We care about the earth, we care about human interaction.

We care about community through Food and Agriculture.

It all comes back to that and I hope when you walk away, you know that you are part of that community.

There are people not just in Arkansas, but all across the country that are enjoying a little bit of rabbit Ridge.

In their thousands of miles away, I'll tell you that that gets up in my fields.

What you have worked so hard to grow.

Is going to so many people that are going to enjoy it.

That's pretty cool.

It's pretty cool.

It's time to feed the animals.

And that's it for us for this week.

Thanks for joining us.

As always, see you next time.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.