Addressing Rumors Regarding Race for Arkansas Senate District 35
As a supporter of Family Council, you need to know the truth regarding rumors about candidate Tyler Dees’ responses to survey questions that appeared in the Family Council Primary Election Voter’s Guide.
It has been said by several people from Northwest Arkansas who have contacted us that Family Council refused to allow Tyler Dees to change his answer to question number two on our survey. That question dealt with COVID-19 vaccine mandates by employers. This rumor is untrue.
Tyler Dees and every other candidate running in the May 24 primary had almost three weeks to let us know if they wanted to change any of their answers to our survey. In addition, before printing the voter’s guide we sent every candidate a copy of their responses and asked them to review their answers and change anything they wished to change before we printed the voter’s guide. Tyler Dees reviewed his responses, and he asked us to make changes to his survey. We made all the changes he asked us to make. We sent him the changed survey, and he approved it.
We ordered 30,000 printed voter’s guides, and we published the voter’s guide online. After the order was placed for printing and after the guide was published online, Tyler Dees contacted Family Council and asked to change his answer to question number two by adding written comments. We explained that we were glad to make the previous changes, but that after the voter’s guides are printed and published online, we never allow candidates to make any more changes.
Imagine how confusing it would be for voters if we allowed all the candidates to keep changing their answers all the way up until the election. Imagine how confusing it would be to have printed guides with one answer and online guides with another.
We have discussed these rumors with Tyler Dees, and he recently posted his response online. “Hi Friends, I wanted to make sure you all knew that the Family Council and their survey is wonderful. I love what they stand for and have been in talks with them and have nothing but great things to say about them. They had deadlines and couldn’t add any comments which is completely understandable.”
As you may know, there is a runoff election on June 21 in Senate District 35. Early voting begins on June 14. You can view each candidate’s answers online at: https://arkansasvotersguide.com/ .
Below are phone numbers for each candidate in the runoff for Arkansas Senate District 35.
Tyler Dees: (479) 861-4741
Gayla Hendren McKenzie: (479) 787-6411
In addition, another rumor has circulated that Family Council is a “Political Action Committee.” This is not true. Family Council is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Political Action Committees campaign for or against a particular candidate. Our tax status does not permit us to endorse or favor one candidate over another.
The Family Council Voter’s Guide is Arkansas’ largest non-partisan election guide. We have been publishing this guide for 32 years. We provide candidates a free opportunity to answer a short survey regarding social, moral, economic, and governmental issues. We publish the results of that survey in voter’s guides for the Primary and General Elections. We provide this as a free service to the people of Arkansas to enable them to cast a more informed vote for candidates who reflect their values.
For more information, contact: Jerry Cox (501) 375-7000.
