Steve Womack (R)

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For Steve Womack, the hard work is behind him. The Republican mayor of Rogers, Ark., faced down seven contenders in the May primary for the 3rd District. Now Womack is heavily favored in his Nov. 2 contest with Democrat David Whitaker, a former assistant city attorney in Fayetteville, to win the seat left vacant by GOP Rep. John Boozman, who is running for the Senate this year. Voters in the northwest corner of Arkansas have not elected a Democrat to the House since 1967.

Womack was born in Russellville, Ark., and spent a good portion of his childhood in Moberly, Mo., before returning with his family to Russellville in his junior year of high school. His father, a local radio broadcaster, introduced him to popular political figures in the region, including former Sens. Tom Eagleton and Stuart Symington and Gov. Warren Hearnes, all Missouri Democrats. “If I ‘Dr.-Phil’ myself about what got me involved in public service, it’s that I always admired political leaders,” Womack said, recalling those visits with his father. After high school, Womack stayed in Russellville to earn his bachelor’s degree at Arkansas Tech University. He and his father subsequently established KURM Radio, which focused on community news, the weather, the county fair, and high school football and Little League baseball games. Womack covered local politics for the station. “I always would second-guess things, and say, ‘Could I do that better?’” he recalled.

In 1990, Womack, by then a member of the Army National Guard, did a stint as executive officer of the Army ROTC program at the University of Arkansas. Later, in 2002, he led a peacekeeping task force of 500 troops in the Sinai Desert in Egypt—a mission established by the peace accords negotiated between Israel and Egypt in 1979. In the late 1990s, he worked briefly as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch, but quit the job when he got the chance to test whether he could “do better” than the local politicians he’d covered as a reporter. In 1998, Womack was elected mayor of Rogers, a city in the high-growth Fayetteville metropolitan area that in recent years has attracted major corporate headquarters and small factories. He has since been reelected twice. As the population of Rogers and Benton County were experiencing significant population growth, Womack accurately anticipated a spike in demand for retail outlets in the area and worked to turn the city into a shopping destination. The city issued bonds to develop infrastructure to attract retail business to the city.

He also had a reputation for tough enforcement of immigration laws. Local Hispanic leaders were incensed when Womack claimed that a majority of crimes in the city were committed by illegal immigrants, which they said was untrue. In 2007, Womack directed city officials to cooperate with raids by federal immigration agents on a Northwest Arkansas Mexican restaurant chain. Four years earlier, Hispanic motorists filed a lawsuit against Rogers and its police department, charging racial profiling. A settlement was reached without an award of damages or an admission of guilt, though Womack formed a committee to build better relations with the immigrant community.

When Boozman gave up his House seat after four terms to challenge Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Womack stepped into a crowded field of Republicans interested in the seat. His opponents included former state Sen. Gunner DeLay, a distant cousin of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas; Steve Lowry, an ex-Drug Enforcement Administration agent; and Cecile Bledsoe, a state senator endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark. Womack and Bledsoe finished first and second, respectively, setting up a June runoff. The two candidates, who live less than a mile from each other, took to the airwaves in an unneighborly way. Bledsoe tried to portray herself as the true conservative in the race, promising to repeal “Obamacare,” the derisive term national Republicans gave to President Obama’s health care overhaul. Womack touted his record of job creation and attacked Bledsoe for her votes on tax issues, claiming that she supported a $100 million tax increase and also a tax on milk when she was in the state Legislature. Womack eked out a victory of 52 percent to 48 percent.