Who is Tom Cotton?

Arkansas is one of America’s poorest states. Today, it’s also one of its reddest, and the politicians it sends to Washington, like its star senator, Tom Cotton, aim to cut the government assistance programs that many Arkansans depend on. But the state was once solidly democratic, and elected charismatic democratic politicians like former President Bill Clinton, for decades. In the second of three episodes exploring the contemporary Republican Party, and the future of the party after Trump, Sean Morrow digs into the forces that brought Sen. Cotton to power, including deep pocketed donors like Charles Koch, and untangles the complexities of white identity politics and the nationalization of Southern beliefs and attitudes.   

Ernie Dumas, Journalist and Author of The Education of Ernie Dumas 

Tamika Edwards, Executive Director of the Social Justice Institute at Philander Smith College 

Angie Maxwell, Director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society and an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas

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