The red stain on democracy spread throughout much of America on Tuesday and didn’t miss Saline County. That’s the home of Patty Hector, the fired librarian who subsequently ran for a seat on the county’s quorum court.
By the time votes were counted, unofficial totals showed republican Karen Crowson had overwhelmingly defeated Hector, a Democrat. They were vying to succeed current Justice of the Peace Keith Keck.
Crowson, a real estate broker , won more than 75% of votes while Hector secured about 25%.
You may recall that County Judge Matt Brumley fired Hector from her job as head of the Saline County Library System in October 2023 because she refused to “segregate” books that some residents found objectionable.
Before Tuesday, the Saline County Quorum Court was all Republican. It will remain so after Tuesday’s election, Hector said Wednesday.
“No matter how dysfunctional, the Republican Party” remains in control in Saline County, and “people are OK with that, I guess,” Hector said.
As for the roughly 30% who Hector said aren’t Republican in the central Arkansas county, Hector said, “Their interests are going to be completely ignored as they have in the past. If you’re a supermajority, you don’t need to compromise.”
Hector said she noticed that there was under-voting in elections below the presidential race on the ballot. “I know that there were a lot of people who voted in the presidential race but didn’t vote in the other races,” she said.
She said other Democratic candidates, like her, had worked really difficult to win.
But she said, “People don’t want a choice. They don’t vote for the person. They vote for the party … [from] what I can tell.”
Hector said she has not spoken to Crowson since the election, but said both candidates ran civil campaigns.
“I don’t know if the library issue was even a factor,” in the race’s outcome, said Hector, of Hot Springs Village. “I know that Hot Springs Village is very very Republican.”
She said constituents she met during the campaign were supportive of her, the First Amendment and opposed censorship.
Now that she’s 64, Hector said, “I’ve got to decide what to do. I’m certainly not going into politics. I didn’t like campaigning.”
Hector, who has no children, has a niece in Connecticut, a blue state. “I’m thinking, maybe I should just leave now.”
Even so, Hector said extremists “are everywhere.”
“Librarians are under attack everywhere. I would not recommend this career for anyone obviously. What kind of world is this? It’s just so depressing,” Hector said.
Hector said the American Civil Liberties Union is still reviewing her dismissal from the Saline County Library for a possible lawsuit. “No one has been held accountable for anything, so I don’t have my hopes up,” she said.
In May, the American Library Association honored Hector with the 2024 Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity.
The association honored Hector “for her unwavering commitment to intellectual freedom, her resilience in the face of adversity and her dedication to the principles of librarianship.”
