After campaigning at county Republican picnics in Northwest Arkansas this summer, legislative candidate Gary Morris of Sonora said Thursday he has changed his mind and now intends to run as a Democrat.
Morris, a retired newscaster, is the only announced Democrat in the race to succeed Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, for House District 97 in next year's election.
Ballinger is running for the state Senate and is supporting Republican Harlan Breaux to replace him in the rural district encompassing parts of Carroll, Madison and Washington counties. Breaux also is a retiree.
"I've been a Republican. My goodness, I went to the Republican convention in 1976 in Kansas City" where Gerald Ford was nominated for president, Morris, 70, said. "So the switch was not something easy to do."
The issue of the state's Medicaid expansion program, through which more than 300,000 low-income Arkansans get health insurance, led the way to his decision, Morris said. Ballinger has been one of several Republicans in the House to oppose the program. Morris said he supports it.
At first, the race to replace Ballinger appeared to be headed toward an unusual matchup of two Republican supporters of the Medicaid expansion. Breaux, who is also 70, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on the day he announced in July that the program "sounds like a good thing."
When called Thursday to respond to Morris' party switch, Breaux also said he'd had a change of heart.
"I found out more about that and I'm not for it," Breaux said of the program. "When I first got the call, I didn't know anything about that."
Breaux said he was put off after learning about the program's cost, which is projected to be around $100 million for the state this fiscal year, out of $1.8 billion mostly paid for by the federal government.
Republicans at a Washington County party picnic in July told Morris they would not support a candidate who supported Medicaid expansion, he said. At the same event, he said Ballinger told people he was "unworthy" to run as a Republican.
"That really floored me," Morris said. Soon after, he said he changed parties on his voter registration and decided to run as a Democrat.
Asked about the comment Thursday, Ballinger said Morris was a "great guy" who had before voted in the Democratic primary, which had "come up in conversation."
"I think Democrats ought to run in Democratic primaries," Ballinger said.
Morris said he voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary for president as a result of the Vermont senator's opposition to the Iraq War.
"I always thought if I had an opportunity, I would support that man," Morris said. In a phone conversation Thursday, he referred to himself both as an "independent" and a "John Kasich kind of Republican," referring to the governor of Ohio.
Breaux, the Republican candidate, said Morris' switch shows that he is unsure of his position.
Under District 97's current boundaries, Ballinger has won each of three elections, dating back to 2012. No Democrat received more than 45 percent of the vote.
Morris cited another factor in his decision: He said it would cost between $30,000 and $40,000 to challenge a Republican in the primary. Morris said he's been campaigning and has a website but has not started raising money.
Metro on 09/27/2017