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Breaking Barriers: Will LaRue's Quest fo Justice - Faulkner County Justice of the Peace District 9
8 Plays5 months ago
Meet Will LaRue: Passionate Candidate for Justice of the Peace in Faulkner County
Steve and Kelly from Stand Up Arkansas present a voters guide for the 2024 election, focusing on their favorite candidates, particularly Will LaRue. Will is running for Justice of the Peace in Faulkner County and has garnered significant attention for his dedication to ensuring people's voices are heard and addressing local issues like animal control. Highlighting his commitment to giving recently released prisoners a second chance, Will's work in his family's manufacturing plant exemplifies his larger vision for community support and representation. Steve and Kelly emphasize the critical role of the Justice of the Peace and the importance of voting in tight local races.
00:00 Introduction to the 2024 Voters Guide
00:18 Spotlight on Will LaRue
00:34 Will LaRue's Background and Achievements
03:29 The Role of Justice of the Peace
04:22 Recidivism and Community Impact
05:45 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:03
Speaker
Hey, y'all, I'm Steve. And I'm Kelly. And we're with Stand Up Arkansas. We are bringing you the voters guide for 2024 election. We need to tell you who we think um our favorite candidates are around the state. We've got some leaders that have stepped up. So if they're on our radar, we wanted to kind of share
Spotlight on Will LaRue
00:00:21
Speaker
our thoughts. And we're going to talk about Will LaRue. Will LaRue is running for Justice of the Peace in Baltimore County. um And this guy has got it together.
00:00:33
Speaker
I am so impressed. I didn't know anything about Will LaRue until you did a recent interview with him and I got to listen to that. And since then I've gotten to spend a little time with him as well. And wow, like he is so passionate about A lot of things, but people, but people, yes. And you know, really ensuring that people's voices are
Local Issues and Solutions
00:00:56
Speaker
heard. Um, that's, that's what has stood out to me is that, you know, his life's work has literally been to go out and help folks who need support. is His life's work. He literally is a partner in his manufacturing company with his dad and y'all.
00:01:13
Speaker
This guy, he's running for justice of the peace and very well could have run for a statewide race. And I've told him and I'll tell all of y'all, Will LaRue will be on a statewide ballot in the next several cycles. But he needed some emphasis on his district at home, literally. They have an animal control problem.
00:01:38
Speaker
And they've been going back and forth. The city has a shelter and there's been money allocated and it's misallocated and it's not
Innovative Approaches to Recidivism
00:01:45
Speaker
spent right. And he's on top of it, but it's a problem in his district. And he wants to get that taken care of this manufacturing plant, but he has it with his dad. He ran out of college and they were coming out of the pandemic or maybe it was during the pandemic and they were trying to get workers.
00:02:07
Speaker
And he knew that we had a ah recidivism problem in Arkansas. you know People that are coming out of prison, they don't have work, they don't have a house, they don't have an income, and they end up right back in prison. And there's a pipeline. And we have some very, very important work being done around keeping people out of prison and getting them on their feet, I'm going to call out Sheriff Higgins on this. And I know whether you believed in what happened with this TV show or whatever, the controversy, he's trying to do things different and he's trying to give people a ah chance and a knowledge to know that they can do something with their life afterwards.
00:02:42
Speaker
He called up and started deciding to bring recently released prisoners on to work in their manufacturing plant. And he found the person call and he called them and they said, okay, um so what restrictions do you have? And Will thought about it a second. He's like, well, we don't have any restrictions. And the guy cried. You know, I think one of the the things that we're so passionate about is is we know that there are large swaths of people in our state that are not represented.
00:03:17
Speaker
but and what I think is that Will is very passionate about representing those communities that may not have adequate representation. And, you know, a lot of people don't really understand what the JP does, and I didn't.
Impact of Employment Programs
00:03:34
Speaker
And, you know, I consider myself to be pretty savvy about things, um but I thought that the JP was who could marry you. I really, I have no idea.
00:03:45
Speaker
what a JP did until we moved to Rosebud and we started learning about all of this. That role, especially right now, when you think about the county government, there's not a role more critical than that one right now. yeah Big decisions around how money is spent, about the freedom that we have around our libraries and our schools. I mean, there are real things that these Just as the Peace have to deal with. And we need representation because right now,
00:04:15
Speaker
in many of our communities and our counties, it's not representative of um the people who live there. Good. I want to come back to this recidivism thing because it's real important. And I have a full podcast with Will and I recommend anybody just go listen to this. this Even after the election, like if you don't have time between now and Tuesday, go spend some time learning about Will LaRue because he's around to stay. He is around to stay. so Sheriff Higgins has this one program. There's only like a 3% return rate, which is like ridiculous. I mean, 97% of the people that go through the program do not go back to prison, but we all was explaining a job.
00:04:59
Speaker
a car and a place to stay. and Which we take those things for granted. but When these guys or gals have a place to stay, an income and a car they won't go back to prison. They want to be just as productive and they need to leg up. So he told him, like, no restrictions. And the guy cried and said, you know, I can't find jobs for some of these people. And he's like, bring them all on.
The Importance of Voting
00:05:28
Speaker
and And he has a very loyal, productive workforce. And they're extremely happy with the outcome of that. And they've definitely changed the lives of people. And that's the guy that's running for JP.
00:05:41
Speaker
We need him to be the JP. Yes. There's so much that needs to be done in Arkansas. And people think about the glory of running for office, I guess. It's hard work. And they beat you up and they threaten to kill you. And it's not like you're doing it for the money. You're making less money if you do this job than you got to carve out your job.
00:06:06
Speaker
And he's out there wanting to do that. So he makes it better for everybody else. but If this was a betting line, or if we were talking about sports, he'd be like my number one draft pick for 26. like I hope he was a seed. He deserves to win this seed. But I think he's got a real strong guy running against him that it's going to be a right down to the wire race. We need everyone to come out.
00:06:31
Speaker
Like we just have a couple more days now and we need every boat in that race. There are tight races in this area, like tight. Like we had a run off with McGee last time and I think that Maureen's race, she was real close. The amount of people that you can get help get to the polls will make a difference.
00:06:50
Speaker
yeah Let's do it. Let's go get Will LaRue elected to JP in Faulkner County. My name is Steve. I'm Kelly. And we're with stand up Arkansas and just go out and vote. Thanks.