Rick Crawford has represented Arkansas's 1st District since 2011. That's 15 years in Washington — a long time to get to know someone. His district is full of farm country, working families, and small towns. So who has he actually been fighting for?
Here are 3 things to know.
1. He waved off the trade war that's crushing Arkansas farmers
Arkansas runs on agriculture. And Trump's tariffs and trade war with China have hammered farmers here — China was the biggest buyer of American soybeans, and that market dried up.
What did Crawford say about it? That tariffs "won't be a problem" — even as his own state's ag officials were sounding the alarm. He kept defending the tariffs and the trade fight while prices for the people back home kept climbing.
Then it got worse. The Trump administration handed Argentina — a direct competitor of American soybean farmers — a $40 billion bailout. Almost right away, Argentina cut its soybean export taxes and China bought up Argentine soybeans instead of ours. American farmers, meanwhile, were offered a much smaller $12 billion in aid. Our tax dollars went to help our farmers' competition. Crawford did nothing to stop it.
2. He works for big business
Want to know who Rick Crawford listens to? Follow the money. His top donors include some of the biggest corporations in the country:
- Boeing
- Koch Inc.
- Lockheed Martin
- Union Pacific
- Caterpillar
- Tyson
That's a long list of powerful companies — and a short list of regular Arkansans. The Koch network in particular has poured money into politics for years to get the policies it wants. When your campaign is paid for by giant corporations, it's not hard to guess whose phone calls get returned. You can see the full picture at Who Bought My Rep.
3. He blocks even basic gun safety laws
We all want our kids to be safe at school. In America, 125 people are killed with guns every single day, and a child or teenager is killed with a gun every few hours.
You can believe in the Second Amendment and still want common-sense steps to keep guns away from dangerous people. Most Americans do. But Crawford opposes a ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons and says we should just "enforce current gun laws" instead of passing new safety measures. After every mass shooting, that's the same answer — thoughts and prayers, and no action.
The bottom line
That's 3 things to know about Rick Crawford. He brushed off a trade war that's hurting Arkansas farmers, he takes his money from big corporations, and he stands in the way of laws that would keep our kids safer.
After 15 years, we can see the pattern. We deserve better.
