GWENDOLYN MILLEN COMBS Facebook

Gwendolynn Millen Combs of Little Rock has indicated she’ll be a Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress, a seat currently held by Republican Rep. French Hill. Paul Spencer of Scott has already announced as a Democratic candidate.

I”ve been unable to reach Combs, but she filed a statement of candidacy today with the Federal Election Commission.

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Combs, who owns a business making jewelry, is a teacher in the Little Rock School District, currently at Stephens, but she’s also been a political activist of late.  She is a founder of Be the Change Alliance, which has organized in support of preserving the Affordable Care Act. She was an organizer of the huge Women’s March for Arkansas in January. Her Facebook page says she was born in Ohio and holds a master’s degree in gifted education from UALR.  She was an Air Force navigation systems technician in Okinawa from 1996 to 1999. She’s 42.

Her Twitter account includes video taken when a group of Arkansans called on Sen. Tom Cotton’s office to urge him not to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

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French Hill voted for an Obamacare repeal termed “mean” by President Trump. He’s had a solidly conservative voting record and failed to carry Pulaski County against a low-profile Democratic challenge in 2016 by Dianne Curry. But his wide margin in the surrounding suburban counties carried the day, as they had in his first race against Pat Hays and for his predecessor Tim Griffin, who also couldn’t carry his home Pulaski County against Democratic opponents.

UPDATE: Chris Kingsby, who said he’ll be Combs’ campaign manager, confirmed her candidacy and said a formal announcement is coming Monday. He said she’d decided it was time “to step up to the plate.”

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Correction: I misspelled Combs’ first name in the original post.

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