Will make our lives WORSE

Bruce Westerman

Candidate for United States Representative - District 4 in Arkansas

Bruce Westerman is running for United States Representative District 4 in Arkansas. He has been our District 4 representative since 2015, so we can judge how he has affected our lives during his 11 year tenure.
Incumbent

As a United States Representative, Bruce Westerman is a member of the United States Congress. Congress enacts laws that influence the daily lives of all Americans and is intended to serve as the voice of the people. Its responsibilities include funding government functions and programs, holding hearings to inform the legislative process, and oversight of the executive branch.

Performance Review

Did Bruce Westerman make our lives better ⭐ or worse ❌?
Will make our lives WORSE

Increasing the Cost of Living

Food, rent, electricity, healthcare - in America we should be able to afford these basic necessities of life without going bankrupt.

Bruce Westerman has supported the current administration's tariffs and other policies which have led to:
  • Half of all Americans struggling to afford groceries
  • 47% struggling to afford their utility bills
  • 47% struggling to afford healthcare
  • 48% struggling to afford housing
  • 1 in 4 Americans saying they have skipped a medical checkup due to affordability
  • 23% skipping a prescription dose

Food prices chart


Arkansas has the highest food insecurity rate in the country and one of the lowest median incomes. What is Bruce Westerman doing about that? Making things worse. We deserve better.

starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Reducing Access to Healthcare

We all deserve access to quality healthcare so we can live healthy and productive lives.

Bruce Westerman disagrees:
  • He voted to cut more than $1 trillion in federal health care and food assistance as part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act". Because of this 40,000 more residents of his district will be uninsured.
  • He voted to let ACA tax credits expire, increasing health costs for millions of Americans, driving many of them to switch to cheaper plans or abandon health insurance coverage altogether. And the less people there are with coverage, the higher the rest of our premiums will be.
  • He wants to repeal the ACA, reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending, and add work requirements to Medicaid.
  • Arkansas stands to lose an estimated $8–11 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the next decade. This will lead to fewer doctors, more strain on rural hospitals (in Arkansas many will shut down), and worse outcomes for families who already struggle to access care

Arkansas is scraping the bottom of the barrel for overall health, women's health, maternal mortality, infant mortality, obesity and life expectancy. What is Bruce Westerman doing about that? Making things worse. We deserve better.

starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Destroying Arkansan Farmers

Farming is the largest industry in Arkansas, contributing over $24 billion to the Arkansas economy and representing 14% of the state’s entire economic output. Bruce Westerman supported the tariffs and trade war with China that have decimated Arkansan farmers in 2025. To add insult to injury, he's done nothing to stop the government from sending $40 billion of our taxpayer money to Argentina to support our farmers' direct competitors, while only giving American farmers a $12 billion dollar bailout.

Bruce Westerman has failed Arkansan farmers. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Cutting Taxes for the Rich

We all need to pay our fair share to the government so it can provide the services that benefit all of us.

But billionaires in the U.S. pay a smaller tax rate than most teachers and nurses. That's not fair.
  • The wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the U.S. paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. For comparison, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 13 percent.
  • The 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes from 2014-2018 — a “true” tax rate of just 3.4 percent on $401 billion of income.
  • 23 of the largest and most profitable companies in the US paid no federal corporate income taxes from 2018-2022. And 109 corporations paid zero federal tax in at least one of those years.

Bruce Westerman is on the side of the billionaires and big business. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that he supported will reduce taxes for the top 1 percent of taxpayers by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, while raising taxes for the poorest Americans. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Rolling Back Environmental Protections

We all deserve clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet to live on.

Bruce Westerman has supported the repealing and rolling back of environmental protections and climate change regulations, all so that billionaires and big business can plunder natural resources and destroy our environment in the name of profit.
EPA Pollution We're all going to pay the price for this with increased rates of asthma, cancer, and premature deaths. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Cutting Access to Food Programs for the Poor

I think we can all agree that nobody in America, the richest country in the world, should go hungry.

Here in Arkansas we're already the worst state in the nation for food insecurity, where 1 in 4 kids faces hunger. And instead of doing anything to fix that, Bruce Westerman supported the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that dramatically cuts funding for SNAP, and the people that need food assistance most.
  • About 39% of SNAP participants are children, and 20% are elderly
  • 41.7 million Americans receive SNAP benefits every month
  • 240,000 Arkansans receive SNAP benefits every month

SNAP stats
Bruce Westerman doesn't care if Americans or Arkansans go hungry. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Destroying Jobs

A good job where we can make a living to support our families, own a home, and have a good life. That's the American Dream.

Bruce Westerman supports policies and an administration that are turning the American Dream into a nightmare.
  • There were 17.4 million layoffs in the U.S. between January and October 2025
  • There were 118,000 layoffs in Arkansas between January and August 2025
  • 55% of employed Americans say they're concerned about losing their jobs
  • The unemployment rate is 4.6%, the highest level since the pandemic
  • In the 7 months since Trump's tariffs took effect, the U.S. economy has averaged just 17,000 jobs added per month, a dramatic decrease from the monthly average of 168,000 the year before Trump took office.
  • Overall employment for workers without college degrees fell by 361,000 jobs from January to September 2025.
  • 58,000 net manufacturing jobs have been lost from April, when the administration announced “Liberation Day” tariffs, to September 2025.
  • Bruce Westerman has opposed measures to boost Arkansas's minimum wage.

Job losses
We can't live the American Dream without well-paying jobs. Bruce Westerman doesn't care. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Working for Big Business, Not for Us

Our elected officials should work for us, the people.

Bruce Westerman works for big business. Look at who some of his top funders are:
  • Mewbourne Oil
  • Pafford EMS
  • Fisher Investments
  • L3Harris Technologies
  • Sierra Pacific Industries
  • Koch
  • ConocoPhillips
  • etc.

Bruce Westerman is funded by big business. No wonder he's not doing anything to improve OUR lives. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Letting Elon Musk and DOGE Cut Funds from Arkansas

We all want a government that works for us as efficiently and effectively as possible. Unfortunately our government doesn't always work that way, so reform is badly needed. Given how big and complicated the government is, it's a tough problem that needs well-thought out solutions, so that we don't make things worse.

That's not what we got.

Bruce Westerman stood idly by while billionaire and ketamine-addled chaos monkey Elon Musk and his DOGE goons chainsawed their way through the U.S. government, promising to save the government at least $2 trillion annually in waste, fraud and abuse. Because they had no idea what they were doing and no one to stop them, in the end our government suffered, people suffered, Arkansas suffered, government spending actually went UP and Elon Musk became even richer.

Elon Musk and DOGE:
  • Had access to and exfiltrated (stole) all our sensitive personal information.
  • Kneecapped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had returned over $26 billion to the American people since 2011.
  • Attempted to cut $4 billion in funding for medical research.
  • Will cost the federal government an estimated $500 billion in lost tax revenue (that could pay for programs for us), due to cuts at the IRS.
  • Disrupted the federal response to the bird flu outbreak, which directly affected Arkansas.
  • Laid waste to the employees at several government departments, removing their top experts and most skilled practitioners, and making their services less effective for all of us. This badly affected veterans, who make up 30% of the federal workforce.
  • Destroyed USAID, which through its Food for Peace Program typically buys around $2 billion of American crops annually to distribute to impoverished countries. And some of that money usually comes to Arkansas, which produces roughly 40% of all rice in the U.S.
  • Cut more than $6.5 million in grants from Bruce Westerman's district that were going to The National Black Growers Gouncil, the Southwest Arkansas Education Cooperative, Southern Arkansas University and FEMA.
  • And the list goes on...

We'd like to thank you, Bruce Westerman, for doing absolutely nothing while an unelected South African big tech billionaire took a chainsaw to vital U.S. government functions, cut an estimated $364 million dollars worth of grants and leases from Arkansas, and completely failed to make the government more efficient. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: This was nothing but a giant con pulled on the American people.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Abdicating His Responsibility

As a member of Congress, part of Bruce Westerman's job is to act as a check and balance to the executive branch. He and his fellow members of Congress from Arkansas (Tom Cotton, French Hill, Steve Womack and Rick Crawford) have completely abdicated their responsibility. These spineless cowards are rubber stamping everything the current administration wants to do, no matter how crazy, dangerous or harmful. And we've seen the results. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not doing his job, and the whole country is suffering as a result.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Opposing Common-Sense Gun Safety Laws

We deserve to feel safe in our neighborhoods, schools, and places of worship.

In order to do that, we need to take real steps to prevent gun violence. And despite what we've been told, it is possible to support the 2nd Amendment and support common-sense gun safety laws at the same time. But Bruce Westerman is funded by the NRA, so has opposed bipartisan gun safety laws and is actually trying to expand gun rights, while offering meaningless thoughts and prayers every time there's a new mass shooting.
  • A child or adolescent is killed with a gun every 2 hours and 48 minutes in the U.S.
  • Age-adjusted firearm homicide rates in the U.S. are 33 times greater than in Australia and 77 times greater than in Germany
  • Every day, 125 Americans are killed with guns, and more than 200 are shot and wounded
  • Women in the U.S. are 28 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries.
  • Arkansas is one of the worst states in the U.S. for violent crime, murder and firearm deaths.

Gun violence
Bruce Westerman is OK with our kids dying, as long as he has his guns. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Giving the Government Control of Our Bodies

America is the land of FREEDOM. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to start a business, freedom to choose your own career path, freedom to make your own medical decisions, freedom to raise your children according to your values, and freedom to pursue happiness. Freedom is what makes America great.

Unless you're a woman and you're making the deeply personal decision about whether to have a baby or not. A decision that will dramatically affect the rest of your life. In that case Bruce Westerman thinks that your freedom doesn't matter and that the government should get to control your body. That's not freedom, that's tyranny.

Bruce Westerman:
  • Opposed Roe v. Wade
  • Supported federal efforts to ban abortion
  • Supported so-called fetal personhood legislation
  • Praised states' egregious abortion bans
  • Attacked Planned Parenthood throughout his career

District 3 candidate (and pastor) Robb Ryerse stated it well: "Abortion should remain safe and legal. These are personal decisions best made by patients, their doctors, and their faith — not politicians. You don’t have to agree with every decision someone makes to believe they should be free to make it. That’s what personal liberty means." Almost 2/3 of Americans agree and believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But Bruce Westerman thinks he knows better, and doesn't believe that we should have the freedom to make our own decisions. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Taking Away Our Voting Power

Arkansas's state motto is "Regnat Populus", a Latin phrase meaning "The People Rule". But Bruce Westerman doesn't want you to have that power. Because when we have voting power, we use it to make our lives better, and they lose power. Read about all the ways they're trying to take away our voting power on the starvoters home page, then come back here.

Bruce Westerman has opposed legislation to make voting easier while supporting the SAVE Act, which would force every single American citizen to prove their citizenship status in person when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information. For the vast majority of Americans, this would mean presenting a passport or birth certificate at their local election office. This would disenfanchise millions of U.S. citizens: 146 million Americans do not have a passport, and 69 million women who have married do not have a birth certificate that matches their new legal name. Working-class and low-income Americans would also be disproportionately disenfranchised if the bill became law, as the vast majority of these groups do not possess a passport.

SAVE Act
YOU HAVE POWER. Why else do you think Bruce Westerman is working so hard to take it away? We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is not fighting for us. He is actively working against us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Supporting America's Secret Police Force, ICE

Whether white, black, or brown, we should all be able to live in America and exercise our constitutional rights without fear that law enforcement will turn on us.

But the current administration has created a secret police force that is abusing their power against anyone who stands in their way, U.S. citizen or not. They claim to be going after "the worst of the worst", but are taking daycare workers, day laborers, grandmas and kids who are valued members of our communities. And Bruce Westerman, staunch defender of the Second Amendment to fight back against government tyranny, is doing absolutely nothing while the government tyrannizes us.
  • ProPublica: They describe the legions of masked immigration officers operating in near-total anonymity on the orders of the president as the crossing of a line that had long set the United States apart from the world’s most repressive regimes. ICE, in their view, has become an unfettered and unaccountable national police force.
  • ProPublica: Accosting people outside of their immigration court hearings where they’re showing up and trying to do the right thing and then hauling them off to an immigration jail in the middle of the country where they can’t access loved ones or speak to counsel. Bands of masked men apprehending people in broad daylight in the streets and hauling them off. Disappearing people to a third country, to a prison where there’s a documented record of serious torture and human rights abuse.
  • New York Times: Masked and heavily armed, ICE agents are sent to cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis to terrorize immigrant communities and brutalize people who challenge their efforts to stop and detain anyone deemed suspicious. To expand its reach, ICE greatly lowered its recruitment standards, effectively enlisting anyone who cares to sign up. To attract new officers, ICE advertises the chance to do violence to people deemed “enemies” of the United States, likening civil immigration enforcement to a war on a dangerous, alien force. The result is an agency whose agents’ first recourse appears to be violence or the threat of violence.
  • They are executing American citizens. On January 7, 2026 an ICE agent in Minneapolis murdered an American citizen, a mother of 3, by shooting her in the face as she tried to drive away. Then the killer walked away, and our government lied and tried to gaslight us about what happened. Decent politicians condemned the murder. What did Bruce Westerman have to say? Nothing.
  • They are executing American citizens: Part 2. On January 24, 2026 ICE agents in Minneapolis murdered an American citizen, a 37 year old ICU nurse, who was filming their activity and trying to help others. Then our government lied and tried to gaslight us about what happened.

If ICE can murder innocent U.S. citizens without repercussions, what could they do to you? ICE is out of control and a danger to us all - no one is safe. What's Bruce Westerman going to do about it? Absolutely nothing. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman is doing nothing while we all suffer.
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Will make our lives WORSE

Missing in Action

Good leaders meet with their constituents and have town halls where citizens can voice concerns, ask questions, and provide input on policies.

Bruce Westerman doesn't want to hear what we have to say. We couldn't find any record of him ever having an in person town hall. He holds telephone town halls with only pre-vetted questions. Because he knows we're not happy with his performance.

Bruce Westerman is ignoring us because he doesn't care what we think. We deserve better.
starvoters pov: Bruce Westerman doesn't want to hear from us.
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Will make our lives WORSE

starvoters pov

Bruce Westerman is actively working against us on every issue that could make our lives better. Our cost of living is up, our access to healthcare is down, our farmers are being destroyed, the rich are getting tax cuts that are being paid for with our Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and Social Security, our environment is being plundered, food programs for our poor are being cut, and our jobs have been destroyed. He works for big business, opposes common-sense gun safety laws that will protect our kids, wants the government to control what we can do with our own bodies, wants to take away our voting power, is doing nothing while ICE becomes a threat to all Americans, and doesn't want to talk to us.

Do we really want another 2 years of this?

There are candidates who want to make our lives better. For your sake, for your kids sake, for your family, friends, neighbors and fellow Arkansans sake, please vote for one of them. Don't let billionaire-manufactured culture wars and other BS distract you from what really matters. Because we all deserve a better life.
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Who is Funding Bruce Westerman?

Voting Record

Wikipedia

Campaign Website

Arkansas

...it's time for a change!
  • Violent Crime: #47
  • Murder: #44/49
  • Firearm Death: #43
  • Incarceration: #48
  • Overall Health: #49
  • Life Expectancy: #44
  • Food Insecurity: #50
  • Obesity: #47/48
  • Women's Health: #46
  • Child Well-being: #45
  • Teen Birth Rate: #49
  • Maternal Mortality: #36/39
  • Infant Mortality: #49
  • Household Income: #47
  • Poverty Rate: #45
  • Public Education: #38
  • Voter Turnout: #48
Overall Rank: #49
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