ABC News: “Former U.S. Rep. Tommy Robinson, who gained notoriety as an Arkansas sheriff for tactics that included chaining inmates outside a state prison to protest overcrowding, has died. He was 82….
Robinson’s rhetoric and stunts earned him folk hero status among rural voters, said Arkansas Democrat-Gazette senior editor and columnist Rex Nelson.
“He was really a Trump-like character before anybody in Arkansas had heard of Donald Trump,” said Nelson, who covered Robinson as a reporter in Washington before working in his congressional office and on his gubernatorial campaign.
During his time in Congress, Robinson aligned with the “boll weevil” bloc of conservative southern Democrats who voted for many of President Ronald Reagan’s policies. When he switched parties in 1989, Arkansas was a predominantly Democratic state, but Robinson complained that the party had become too liberal.
“If I am to meet the needs of my people, I simply cannot wait any longer for the liberal leadership of the Democratic Party to see the light,” Robinson said at a White House news conference with President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
Robinson ran for the GOP nomination for governor, hoping to unseat Gov. Bill Clinton. He was defeated by Sheffield Nelson in the Republican primary, and Nelson lost to Clinton that fall. Clinton was elected president in 1992.”