Retired Army colonel faces Republican incumbent in Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District race

The race to represent Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District is the contest between the current congressman and the former Army officer, the incumbent and the hopeful.

Democrat Col. Marcus Jones and incumbent Republican Congressman French Hill are vying for a seat representing Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. The two will face off in a debate held by Arkansas PBS Monday.

On one hand, Rep. French Hill has been serving Arkansas from Washington, D.C. since 2015.

“We were all taught in fifth grade when we did Arkansas history,” he said. “That you could build a wall around Arkansas and live independently of the rest of the universe.”

Hill is the Republican in the race, once serving as an advisor to former governor Mike Huckabee. Before serving in Congress, Hill was a banker. Now, he uses this knowledge to chair the House Financial Services Committee.

On the other side of this contest: Ret. Col. Marcus Jones. He’s running as a Democrat.

Jones said he felt called to challenge Hill after serving in the military for almost 30 years. His retirement became official a year ago.

“There was a lot of discussion in our house,” Jones said. “A lot of soul searching on the part of me and my entire family.”

While in the Army, he traveled the world, lived in eight different states and deployed to Iraq twice as a field artillery officer. In describing that job, Jones said “imagine rockets.”

Both Hill and Jones have similar stances when it comes to hot-button foreign policy issues. They both support aid for Ukraine after the country was invaded by Russia.

“Vladimir Putin has shown in Georgia, in Crimea, that unless he is stopped he will continue an expansion,” Jones said.

“Defeating Putin [in Ukraine] is to defeat Putin elsewhere,” said Hill.

Both also support aid for Israel to help the country fight the terrorist group Hamas, but Jones especially supports humanitarian aid for Gaza along with military aid to Israel.

But Jones disagrees with Hill on more specific policy issues. In his ad, Jones says the incumbent “isn’t a bad guy, he is just the wrong guy.”

“Polling data indicates that the majority of Arkansas are in support of women’s reproductive rights,” Jones said. “My opponent clearly is not. Is it in the interest to put prohibitions in place on whether or not members of Congress can trade stocks, my opponent voted against that.”

Jones supports progressive policies like expanding access to healthcare and addiction services. He wants to pass legislation to lessen food insecurity in children and would vote to expand the child tax credit.

Jones described the role of government this way:

“The first thing the government ought to do is not hurt people and the second thing is it ought to work to make things better for us.”

Congressman Hill says the role of government is to protect individual rights.

“We the people rule, and our government is set up as a strict separation of powers.”

Both candidates had childhoods in Arkansas. Hill grew up in Little Rock. He said he first became civically minded when he was a Boy Scout in his youth. Jones said he has been repeatedly taken with the “optimism and spirit” of the state’s culture.

Unlike Jones, Hill has a deep well of conservative credentials that have helped him to get repeatedly elected in Arkansas, even against well known local democrats like Clarke Tucker and Joyce Elliott.

One analysis showed that Hill has voted with former President Donald Trump 95% of the time. He supports legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote, wants to strengthen border security, and be tough on China.

He called the guilty verdict against Trump a “political gotcha game.”

Right now, Hill says one of his biggest priorities is easing inflation for working families.

“The Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low,” Hill said. “The Biden Administration spent too much money.”

He thinks this can be accomplished by making more energy at home and minimizing banking regulations. He also believes strongly in minimal government spending.

“And that takes bipartisanship,” he says.

In 2021, he broke with some of his colleagues in voting to support an investigation in the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. But after it was over, Hill found fault with the committee handling of the investigation.

“The January 6th commission that former Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi created was a very political, one-sided investigation.”

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his fellow Republicans to stay away from the commission.

But, Jones said he would have made the same call to vote in favor of the commission.

“As someone who, since they were 17 years old, swore an allegiance to the Constitution,” Jones said. “I am an absolute believer that the January 6th commission needed to investigate.”

The 2nd Congressional District covers eight counties including most of Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties.