Welcome to The Move This Week, a weekly newsletter I’m trying to write in 2025 with resources to stay in touch with what’s going on in the world of policy, politics, and nonprofits around Arkansas, the South, and the country. I’m Will Watson, founder of Hillscout Strategies and a road-weary traveler on the paths of politics and nonprofits in the Natural State. 

I’m still learning the ropes of editing my own WordPress website and newsletter, so please excuse any clunky editing errors or design flaws.

At a ten thousand foot level: things are rough. I don’t have to embed the image, because readers of a certain age and onlineness can picture the dog with the coffee in the room on fire without needing a visual aid. That seems to be where the country is this week, and Arkansas is no exception with the convening of the General Assembly and an onslaught of legislation and executive proclamations that seem hellbent on stirring culture war and ignoring the many significant needs of the state. 

Fear and rumors flew unfettered over the last week as Donald Trump’s anti-immigrations plans were enforced by federal agents in Arkansas and across the country. Media in Northwest Arkansas covered detentions of workers in the region and new social media organizations, like AIRE Arkansas, co-founded by longtime immigrant rights activists Mayra and Irvin Camacho, launched to monitor anti-immigrant activity in the area. The group has a set of resources for those wishing to be informed about legal rights and advice for encounters with ICE. They are also on Facebook. 

Earlier this week, the nonprofit organization Canopy NWA, which helps resettle refugees in the Northwest Arkansas region, also issued a statement saying they had been “instructed to abandon” the populations they serve with a headline WE WON’T ABANDON REFUGEES IN OUR COMMUNITY. The organization now faces a budgetary pinch due to the end of federal funding for resettlement programs like theirs. They make an appeal to become a monthly donor, which you can do here. 

Also in Arkansas, a flurry of Very Bad Legislation arrived at the state Capitol, including a redux of the anti-affirmative action bill that was filed by Jonesboro state Senator Dan Sullivan in 2023. The bills mimic the anti-DEI witch hunt conducted by federal officials, and are likely to find a more friendly audience in 2025 with capitulations to the new anti-diversity norm by large corporations like Walmart and Target, and demagoguing of the issue by Trump and other Republicans. The Senate bill was approved by committee on Tuesday.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, who very much enjoys holding press conferences, conducted one on Tuesday where she announced a renewed attempt to winnow the number of recipients of state health insurance by adding new work requirements to the program. Since its bipartisan passage in the 2013 legislative session, the expansion of Medicaid to extend coverage to hundreds of thousands of previously uninsured Arkansas has been under attack by fringe conservatives who now constitute the mainstream in Arkansas. Sanders has set her sights on taking away coverage from around 90,000 Arkansas who are on the program but not working. About 220,000 Arkansas rely on the state’s program for health coverage, according to her release. 

Frankly, the conservative movement has done an impeccable job at flooding the zone in January. The memes are flying about the date being January 85th and how Truly Awful everything feels, if you’re of a progressive orientation. But the fact is, this flurry of policies was telegraphed in the election and lead-up to inauguration, and here in Arkansas, before the legislative session was gaveled-in. It goes without saying that elections have consequences, and the state and country are facing those now in ways that feel unexpected to some and entirely predictable to others. 

So, what’s the move this week? 

• Keep up with what your government is doing. Follow your local and state government officials on social media, become very familiar with https://arkleg.state.ar.us, and subscribe to any legislative newsletter or political organization that’s tracking policy. 
• Invest in local journalism. I subscribe (that means pay money to, in this context) the Arkansas Advocate and the Arkansas Times so they can afford to pay money to reporters to shine a light on what’s going on at the state Capitol and around Arkansas. 
• Become a frequent flyer with your elected officials at every level. Know who your local officials are in your city and county, contact your state legislators and U.S. House and Senate representatives so they’re familiar with seeing your name in your inbox. Don’t send copied-and-pasted national-level spam, but write thoughtful and concise notes to policy-makers with specific requests (e.g. please vote for this or don’t vote for that). The Arkansas Secretary of State has some resources to find your elected officials. 
• Perhaps most importantly, develop a self-care practice to ensure you’re not just doom-scrolling and consuming media all the time. It wasn’t healthy from 2017-2021 and it won’t be healthy this year either. Arkansas (for now) has fantastic state parks and public lands, we have some of the best museums and art galleries in the South, there are always new restaurants, pop-ups, coffee shops, and slices of pie to try around the state. Get out there and touch grass, Arkansas. 

That’s the move this week. Check back next week when I’ll do a post with updates and more advice for how to channel the chaos into action.