Jeff Crow, the former Arkansas Game and Fish Commission director, announced Tuesday that he is challenging Sen. Alan Clark in Senate District 13 in the 2020 Republican primary.
Crow said he wants to work to help create jobs, improve schools and make communities safer. He steered clear in an interview of spelling out his differences with Clark.
Senate District 13 includes Hot Spring County and parts of Garland, Grant and Saline counties.
Clark of Lonsdale has served in the Senate since 2013, after ousting Sen. Mike Fletcher, D-Hot Springs, in the 2012 general election. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. Clark, 58, is vice president and chief operating officer of Clark's Building and Decorating Center.
Crow said he lives in the New DeRoche community in Hot Spring County between Bismarck and Malvern. He is 55 and director of safety and emergency management at Ouachita Baptist University. He described himself in an interview as apolitical and a Republican in his adult life.
Crow voted in the Republican primary in 2018, after voting in Democratic primaries from 2006 to 2016, according to records in the secretary of state's office. Crow said he is a conservative and consistently votes for Republican candidates in the general election, but he previously voted in Democratic primaries "to have a voice" in who was elected to Hot Spring County offices.
Clark voted in the Democratic primary in 2006 before voting in Republican primaries from 2008 to 2018, according to records in the secretary of state's office.
Crow served as director of the Game and Fish Commission from July 1, 2016-Dec. 31, 2017. In October 2017, he announced his resignation, citing stress and the pressure of leading a large organization with a diverse, far-flung constituency.
Before serving in administrative roles at the Game and Fish Commission for six years, Crow worked for 25 years as a state trooper and wildlife officer. He also spent 25 years in the Marine Corps serving combat tours in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom II before retiring with the rank of sergeant major. He also is founder and president of Modern-Day Knight Training Group.
"Over the last 35 years, it has been my privilege to wear several different uniforms in service to the citizens of this district, state and nation," Crow said in a news release.
"Last year I became a grandfather and I want my granddaughter to enjoy the same freedoms and have even greater opportunities than I have been blessed with. I want to help insure that current and future generations can realize the promise of a better Arkansas with great jobs, excellent schools and safer communities. I believe running for the State Senate will allow me to continue my service to the people of District 13 and the citizens of Arkansas and I am excited about having this opportunity," Crow said in his news release.
In a written statement, Clark said, "I believe this campaign will shape up to be the grassroots versus the elites."
He said more than 1,000 everyday Arkansans from District 13 knocked on doors and made phone calls for his campaign seven years ago.
"I have never forgotten who elected me. I think it will be a referendum on whether the people want a state senator who fights for them, is a proven conservative, speaks his mind and leads on those values instead of putting his finger in the wind on every issue, and who listens, returns calls and gets involved when constituents need help," Clark said. "My voting record stands for itself. ... I am proud of what we have accomplished in education, child welfare reform, for veterans, for our senior citizens, our fire departments, for our farmers, for those who provide jobs and our Main Street merchants who have struggled to stay in business, pay local taxes, and employ local people."
Metro on 05/01/2019