The Mississippi County native is seeking the state’s First Congressional District seat.
State Representative Monte Hodges, D-Blytheville, announced his campaign to represent the state’s first Congressional District during a prayer breakfast in Blytheville this morning. The Democrat is challenging Republican incumbent Rick Crawford who was first elected to the position in 2010.
“I’m running for Congress because I see a future for the Delta where our children don’t have to leave home to find opportunities; where the jobs we do have pay wages that pay; where our towns are not shrinking — but blossoming,” Hodges said in a statement.
Today marks the start of an eight-day campaign tour reaching every county in the district. If elected, Hodges would become the first African American candidate from Arkansas to be elected to Congress.
Rep. Hodges was born and raised in the Arkansas Delta and is a 1990 graduate of Blytheville High School. He earned an associate’s degree from Mississippi County Community College — now Arkansas Northeastern College — and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Arkansas State University.
Hodges served in the U.S. military for nine years. He is an ordained minister and senior vice president of commercial lending at Southern Bancorp Bank. Rep. Hodges is currently serving his fifth term in the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 55 (now 34).
More information is available at www.monteforcongress.org.