By Kaitlyn Rigdon
Staff Writer
Often referred to as the First Lady of the Second Amendment, Jan Morgan attended a meet and greet at Main Street Pizza on Saturday.
Morgan, a gubernatorial candidate challenging Gov. Asa Hutchinson for the Republican spot on the November ballot, met with the TEA Party Patriots of Union County as part of her campaign trail.
The nationally-recognized Second Amendment advocate is the owner of The Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in Hot Springs.
Morgan is a National Rifle Association certified firearms instructor, NRA certified range safety officer, Arkansas State Police certified concealed carry instructor and founder of Armed American Women — a national firearms training program for women.
The Republican challenger announced on New Year’s Eve that she would be running for governor. Hutchinson was first elected to the governor position in 2014.
“Together we’ll expand our pro-growth tax reform, continue marketing our state to the world and create even more jobs here in our great state,” Hutchinson’s campaign website read. “I’m proud to be your governor and I’m asking for your support.”
According to Morgan’s website, she’s an American First Republican and constitutional conservative who believes in smaller, transparent, constitutional government that puts more money and freedom back in the hands of the people.
“Right now, our governor is not a conservative and he hasn’t been for four years and the people of this state need a choice,” Morgan said. “It’s time for the conservatives of this state to take this state back and fix the issues that we have in the party.”
Morgan discussed how Hutchinson has increased government spending by over $600 million since he took office.
“His first year he was in office, he increased government spending by $133 million, his second year, $140 million, third year $160 million, and this year his proposed budget will increase government spending by $172 million,” she said.
Morgan described her and Hutchinson are “polar opposites” on the issue of sanctuary cities. Morgan believes the government has a legal pathway “for people to come here and work and be productive United States citizens.”
She said that she’s a 24-year veteran investigative television journalist who serves as a gun rights analyst for Fox Business “using television and the internet news outlets as a platform to expose waste, fraud and abuse in government.”
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, Morgan said Hutchinson “spends most of his time bashing President Trump.”
“(Hutchinson) has made the statement that President Trump’s message is not his message,” Morgan said. “Well, 72 percent of people in this state said Donald Trump’s message is their message.”
“He is detached from the common folks of Arkansas and I’m going to be their voice,” she said. “That’s why I’m running and I’m hoping that the people will once again, as they stepped up for President Trump, that they will step up for me so that we can turn this government around and restore the power to the people.”
According to her website, Morgan currently has almost 40,000 pledged supporters and about 1,800 supporting donors.
Voting for the primaries will be held on May 22. Representing the Democratic Party will be Jared Henderson and Leticia Sanders. Mark West is running as a Libertarian.
According to the Associated Press, Henderson is the former head of an education nonprofit and said that “he believes the party can break through in the state despite Republican dominance. Henderson is also the former executive director of the Arkansas branch of Teach for America.”
The Democrat-Gazette reported that Sanders is a hair braider and a graduate student at Webster University. She decided to run for governor last February because she’s “a people person.”
The Libertarian Party selected West as its nominee at a convention in February.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].