State Senator Clint Penzo (R-AR), candidate in Arkansas’s Third Congressional District, joined Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM to discuss his critical primary race against Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), one of the 25 intransigents who blocked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for Speaker of the House in October.
“The Jim Jordan vote is what got me into the race,” Penzo told host Matt Boyle. “I just started my first Senate term at the state level. And after the Jim Jordan vote, my phone exploded and people were just looking for someone to run against Womack.”
Jordan, a founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and perhaps the most popular Republican in Congress, had significant support for Speaker in the district, says Penzo.
“[Womack] pretty much voted three times against Jim Jordan and stated that he was going to do what he had to do for himself, not what his constituents asked him to do.” Penzo said, pointing out a county Republican committee in his district recently passed a “do not recommend” resolution for Womack’s reelection bid.
“Some of the things they mentioned in that resolution were his 52% Liberty Score, 62% score from Club for Growth, him being one of nine Republicans that voted for the $1.6 trillion omnibus bill.” he said. ‘[Womack] was one of 20 Republicans that voted not to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and it stated that the county committee questioned his commitment to the Republican platform. So there’s been many votes that he’s made that have really upset the constituents in my district and that’s why they’ve asked for a change.”
Penzo made clear he would maintain his reputation as someone who would not go along to get along. “My nickname in Little Rock is ‘Penz-No,’ because I’m not afraid to say no to the big entities, the big corporations, the lobbyists,” he said proudly. “So they know that I’ll stand up for the people of the district.”
Penzo said momentum since Jordan’s vote has remained as he has ramped up his campaign.
“Momentum is continuing to grow,” Penzo said, while pointing out that “fundraising has been difficult against an incumbent… The system is set up to keep people like me out and keep the incumbent in. They just recently raised the filing fee in Arkansas called the ‘incumbent protection plan.’ They raised it from $15,000 to $30,000. So I had to write a personal check for $30,000 just to get on the ballot.”
But establishment pressure has not dissuaded Penzo. “I’ve had people tell me ‘it’s not your time, you need to wait in line,'” he explained. “I’m not doing this because I want to do it. I’m doing it because my constituents asked me to do it. And nobody, the only person that’s gonna tell me what time is the right time is the people in my district.”
Breitbart News Saturday host and Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle discussed the necessity of surrounding Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) with fellow conservatives to moved forward his agenda. “If you want to change the way Washington works, you have to change the people that are in the membership underneath the leadership, right?” he said.
Penzo agreed, adding that “as long as [Womack’s] voting with the Democrats, it’s hard for the Republicans to draw the line in the sand and force negotiations on these omnibus spending bills.”
He continued, “People in my district, the three things that I hear the most about are border, budget, and bureaucracy,” claiming that Congressmen must be willing to vote against huge omnibus bills.
“Everybody in my district talks about, ‘we want single item budget bills,’ and that’s how the budget should be done, not a $1.6 trillion omnibus,” he said. “There’s certain things that are in these omnibus bills that I won’t vote for. And, you know, as long as you’ve got someone like Womack down there instead of me, they’re gonna keep passing, and we need to change, not just in my district, but other districts.”
He concluded, “The third congressional district — they have a Freedom Caucus member just across the border in Missouri and just across the border in Oklahoma. Nobody in Arkansas is a member of the Freedom Caucus, and that that’s something I would like to see changed in this next election.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
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