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Cotton Senate Campaign Launches Veterans For Cotton

Tom Cotton
David Wallace
/
KUAR News

Using the Arkansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the state Capitol grounds as the backdrop, Congressman Tom Cotton unveiled the Veterans for Cotton Coalition Sat.

The coalition boasts more than 400 Arkansas veterans from every corner of the state, according to the campaign.

"Washington, D.C. would be a better place if it had more people that more people who reflected the values of leadership, duty, courage, service," Cotton said in announcing the coalition.

"If we had leaders who would do what my drill sergeant taught me to do--the hard right over the easy wrong."

Cotton said he first learned those values at home in Dardenelle, Ark., where he says he tried to emulate his father, Lynn, who volunteered for the army in 1968 and "walked point" for his infantry squad in Viet Nam.

Ron Miller, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, is the lead organizer of the coalition. He said more than 250,000 veterans call Arkansas home.

Cotton, a Republican freshman congressman from Arkansas' 2nd District, is seeking to unseat incumbent Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat who has not served in the military. But Cotton said Pryor has been marching, nevertheless.

"For five year, Mark Pryor has been a loyal foot soldier for the Obama agenda in Washington," Cotton said.

Linda Dahl of Mt. Vernon, Ark., a retired National Guard member with three sons serving in the military, says Cotton has broad appeal for military families, regardless of party affiliation.

"I'm not on one (side of the) aisle or the other," Dahl said. "I vote for the core values I see that candidate represents, and they happen to align with Tom Cotton up and down."

David Wallace was a reporter and anchor for UA Little Rock Public Radio from 1991 to March 2021.
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