Noelle Nikpour has been getting some flak lately for not owning a home in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, even though the former (current?) Arkansan and GOP strategist is running to represent the district.
TCPalm, the website of Treasure Coast Newspapers, noted that Nikpour was among four of the candidates in that race who had changed their voter registrations to District 18 at about the time they filed to run.
Arkansas Business readers know that Nikpour still owns property in Little Rock, a handsome $1.2 million house on Edgehill Road. She claims a homestead tax credit on the house, which is supposed to mean that it’s her primary residence. TCPalm said Nikpour lists her address at a house she doesn’t own in the district, which is in eastern Florida and includes St. Lucie and Martin counties and part of Palm Beach County.
The primary is Tuesday and the general election in November will decide who will replace Democrat Patrick Murphy, who is running for U.S. Senate. The race has drawn six Republicans — Nikpour among them — and three Democrats, and media reports have called it one of Florida’s most competitive.
An ad for one of the GOP candidates, lawyer Rick Kozell, takes aim at the carpetbagging candidates, saying, “Rick didn’t move to our community just to run. He’s from here. Rick isn’t trying to buy your vote. He’s working to earn it.”
Hometown Help
Nikpour has raised $224,000 in campaign contributions, less than most in the primary. But she has attracted some high-profile Arkansans as donors, including:
- Stephen LaFrance Jr., whose father founded USA Drug, $5,400;
- Andrea Rockefeller, the daughter of late Arkansas Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller who’s a law enforcement officer with the England Police Department, $5,400;
- Tyson Foods Chairman John Tyson, $2,700;
- Joseph Courtright, former president and CEO of USA Drug who’s now a partner in Dale Capital Partners Inc. of Little Rock (and a neighbor of Nikpour on Edgehill Road), $500;
- Richard Bearden, a former executive director of the Arkansas Republican Party who’s now a lobbyist, $250;
- Bud Cummins, a Little Rock lawyer and former U.S. attorney who heads Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Arkansas, $500; and
- William Asa Hutchinson III, a Rogers lawyer and son of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, $250.
In addition to occasionally appearing on Fox News, Nikpour has written for the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, which circulates in south Florida. In a Jan. 20, 2015, column about female jihadists, Nikpour described herself as “a Southern girl from small-town Arkansas whose job enables her to travel across the country and internationally. I’m as comfortable in New York and Washington as I am in Little Rock.”
TCPalm, by the way, has endorsed Kozell, criticizing Nikpour as “a no-show at many campaign forums, including the Editorial Board’s interview.”