Delta Grassroots Caucus Events

Credit Michael Hibblen/ KUAR News, Arkansas Public Radio; Former President Bill Clinton speaking to the Delta Grassroots Caucus on May 2, 2013, at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock

U. S. Senator John Boozman, Arkansas, at a Delta Grassroots Caucus meeting at the US Capitol

Brad Cole, Executive Director of the Municipal League of Illinois; previously a senior aide to former Republican US Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, earlier Mayor of Carbondale, Illinois, veteran Delta regional advocate, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

President Bill Clinton makes a comment to Delta Caucus Director Lee Powell at a meeting in Blytheville, Arkansas (in the northeast Arkansas Delta) on Nov. 2, 2014

The Delta Caucus would like to pay tribute to the late, great U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a powerful force in the US Senate for decades and a champion for the Delta. Sen. Cochran passed away on May 30, 2019. He spoke to the Delta Caucus on many occasions over the years (he is pictured above speaking to a Caucus event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC) and his thoughtful, courteous and bipartisan leadership will be sorely missed.

Marcie Lawson, Executive Director, Sikeston, Missouri Regional Chamber and Area Economic Development Corporation, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Alan Gumbel, Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, Memphis, Tennessee, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Mayor Shirley Washington of Pine Bluff, AR, speaking to the Delta Caucus at the Arkansas Capitol Rotunda in 2017.

Final Update for Jan. 30-31, 2008 Delta Caucus

Posted on January 28, 2008 at 08:35 PM

For the Jan. 30-31, 2008 annual conference, we will have a nonpartisan, substantive forum for representatives of Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney to state what they would do to promote a brighter economic future for the Delta region if elected President, as well as presentations by Gov. Mike Beebe, the Hon. Rodney Slater, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, and grassroots leaders from all eight states of the region.

The opening session is 4:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. The main session is 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Clinton Library.

The main session on Thursday, Jan. 31 will feature presentations from Gov. Beebe, a nonpartisan, substantive Presidential forum featuring Bob Nash, Deputy Campaign Manger for Sen. Clinton and former White House aide to President Bill Clinton; French Hill, Gov. Huckabee’s Finance Chair and former White House aide to the first President Bush; and Lisa Ferrell, an Arkansas supporter of Sen. Obama, attorney, former state representative, and a classmate of Sen. Obama at Harvard Law School. The Hon. Rodney Slater will be the main luncheon speaker.

Gov. Mitt Romney’s speaker is Jeremy Hutchinson, attorney and former state representative in Arkansas, and he is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. at the opening session on Wednesday.

The opening session is Jan. 30, Wednesday, 4:45 to 8:15 p.m. at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, and will feature Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, Joe Belden of the Housing Assistance Council addressing the housing crisis and its impact on the Delta’s economy, Roger Jones of Heifer International on Heifer’s activities in the Delta, and Steve Southard of Nucor Yamato Steel on innovative new policies that create jobs with environmentally friendly policies, and a panel on economic development led by Rex Nelson, Alternate Federal Co-Chair of the Delta Regional Authority.

Gov. Mike Beebe of Arkansas will kick off the main session on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 9 a.m. in addressing education, health care, economic development, alternative energy, tourism and support for the Delta Regional Authority.

Then we will have a nonpartisan Presidential forum. We will not endorse any candidate but want to urge all of them to do more to fight poverty in America’s most impoverished region. We face the unusual situation of having three major candidates with ties to the Delta: former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, former First Lady Hillary Clinton of Arkansas, Sen. Obama, who as Senator from Illinois represents the southern Illinois Delta area, which is an integral part of the region.

–Bob Nash, Deputy Campaign Manager for Sen. Clinton and former White House aide to President Bill Clinton; –Lisa Ferrell, Arkansas supporter for Sen. Barack Obama, attorney, former state representative in Arkansas, and classmate of Sen. Obama at Harvard Law School –French Hill–Finance Chair for Gov. Mike Huckabee and a former White House aide to the first President Bush.

The Hon. Rodney Slater, former US Secretary of Transportation under President Clinton, a native son of the Delta and now a partner at Patton &Boggs in Washington, DC, will be the main luncheon speaker. We will also hear from Rhonda Sanders of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families and Jan Paschal of the Every Child Is Ours Foundation at the luncheon.

The afternoon on Thursday will focus on developing a well-educated and well-trained workforce in the Delta, led by a panel of experts moderated by President Les Wyatt of Arkansas State University.

The final panel on Thursday afternoon will focus on job creation and economic competitiveness, moderated by Patrick Powell of Murray State University.

If you have any questions, complaints, comments or other details, please address them to two key partners: Laymon Jones, head of Inspire Hope Institute, at 510-541-0259, laymon@LaymonJones.com, or Desha County Judge Mark McElroy, at (870) 877-2426, or dejudge@seark.net

Thanks very much.