As I read the attacks on social media from those who criticized Gov. Asa Hutchinson for his stand on the Arkansas flag, the comments that made me smile the widest were the ones that called Hutchinson a RINO. The acronym stands for Republican In Name Only.

You see, I first met Hutchinson 35 years ago when I was working full time for a GOP candidate. In those days, there were so few people identifying themselves as Republicans in Arkansas that most of us knew each other on a first-name basis.

I was working for Judy Petty, the Republican candidate in the 2nd Congressional District who ran an unsuccessful race against the Democratic sheriff of Pulaski County, Tommy Robinson.

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Rex Nelson

Rex Nelson has been senior editor and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2017, and he has a biweekly podcast called "Southern Fried."

After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University in 1981, he was a sportswriter for the Arkansas Democrat for a year before becoming editor of Arkadelphia's Daily Siftings Herald. He was the youngest editor of a daily in Arkansas at age 23. Rex was then news and sports director at KVRC-KDEL from 1983-1985.

He returned to the Democrat as assistant sports editor in 1985. From 1986-1989, he was its Washington correspondent. He left to be Jackson T. Stephens' consultant.

Rex became the Democrat-Gazette's first political editor in 1992, but left in 1996 to join then-Gov. Mike Huckabee's office. He also served from 2005-09 in the administration of President George W. Bush.

From 2009-2018, he worked stints at the Communications Group, Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, and Simmons First National Corp.

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