Jack Foster, a former Pine Bluff council member and convicted felon, has announced that he is running for U.S. Senate and will compete for the seat as a Democrat.
The 75-year-old said he is running for office to bring the focus back on Arkansas.
"People get elected from Arkansas and go to Washington and take on a national agenda," Foster said. "I want to make Arkansas the priority. That's not happening right now."
In a press release, Foster said Arkansas "has pockets of poverty all over it" and that aid from Washington is not going to Arkansans equally.
"I'm going to take my candidacy to the people of the state of Arkansas," he said over the phone on Friday from Lake Village. "Arkansas is hurting. We are not getting what we deserve. It's just not happening."
Foster has been a fixture in Pine Bluff for years. But out of all the public quarrels he's had with business leaders and elected officials, his lawsuits and his threats of lawsuits, it is his conviction in federal court for extortion that stands out the most on his resume.
In 2004, a jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison. Foster was a Pine Bluff council member at the time, and the charge related to Foster and another council member, Billy Freeman, of receiving a total of $32,500 in exchange for favorable votes on a business matter that needed council approval. Freeman was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison.
Foster appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, but the court affirmed the conviction. In the background information in the appeal, it said, "Foster was a leader and organizer in the offense."
In Foster's press release, he said the conviction was "wrongful."
Asked what that meant, he said "I should not have been convicted."
Foster said he never actually voted on the business matter, and that others who have been charged under similar circumstances have had their guilty verdicts overturned.
"There's no difference," he said. "Well, except I'm still stuck with the felony, and they got off scot-free."
Over the years, Foster has expressed support for Republican candidates, but he said he decided to run as a Democrat because the Republican party is different now.
"I used to embrace the things the Republican Party was doing," he said. "But the party has changed. The party got away from inclusion. When that changed, that's when they lost me."
Foster did not mention the name of the Republican incumbent, Sen. John Boozman, in his press release or during the phone conversation, but when asked if he thought Boozman, who has announced his intention to run for reelection, had done enough to push back on some of the more controversial aspects of the former Trump administration, Foster said Boozman had not.
"No, he did not do enough," Foster said. "He enabled and entitled Donald Trump. And what has that done for the state of Arkansas? Nothing."
Foster was born in Eudora and raised in Lake Village. He said if he were elected, he would encourage more trade with Cuba, thereby helping farmers, and he would make infrastructure improvements a "top priority."
He also said his political experience will be an asset for him.
"I know how to get things done," Foster said. "I know politics and what it takes to help people. And that's what it's all about. We need people in Washington who want to help Arkansans."
Although Boozman, now in his second term, has a primary opponent in Jan Morgan, a gun-rights advocate, the incumbent would be considered a favorite to be Republican nominee. Asked if he thought he could win as a Democrat in a state that is deep red, Foster said he liked his chances.
"I didn't get into this race to lose," he said. "I got into this race to win."
The election is Nov. 8, 2022.