Independent congressional candidate Lee McQueen wants to be elected to the House of Representatives for Arkansas' Fourth Congressional District, and her campaign messages suggest a list of projects to improve the economy-including legalizing industrial hemp for textile use.
McQueen, an Arkansas-side resident, introduced herself Thursday during a meet-and-greet in the Texarkana Public Library's David Nelson Meeting Room.
"Regulate and tax hemp like potatoes, rice, cotton, wheat, soybeans, corn, any other cash crop. Legalize production, processing, and possession of recreational marijuana. Regulate and tax recreational marijuana like alcohol and tobacco," she said.
McQueen's proposals also suggest launching large-scale renewable energy projects to take advantage of the abundant but under-used solar energy resources, she said.
"As the state of Iowa has already discovered, renewable energies like wind and biomass are critical to improving the farm economy. In other states like Texas and Kentucky, solar has added revenue to rural economies," she said.
McQueen advocates renewable energy over the extraction of fossil fuels, which she says poisons both urban and rural communities.
"The fuel is exported with no benefit to the communities contaminated along the transportation route. Renewable energy is harder to export, is most often used stateside, and therefore results in true energy independence," she said.
McQueen also wants to create new jobs to improve the economy.
"We need to put our people to work as soon as possible, tomorrow, on large-scale retrofitting, modernization, streamlining, rebuilding of Arkansas's infrastructureroads, bridges, sidewalks, bike paths, smart grid electrical transmissions, expansion of broadband and high-speed internet communications networks, public works, waterways," she said.
"We need to fill our abandoned industrial parks and buildings with active, thriving manufacturing and production of the parts necessary for renewable energy development and infrastructure modernization. We need service providers and retail workers to provide the end results to the consumers," she said.
McQueen describes her campaign as a Bernie Sanders-style candidacy. Her involvement in politics began with volunteer work for the 1988 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign.
"I'm not not left or right, but I'm forward thinking," she said.
McQueen's family has lived in the Texarkana and Little Rock areas for more than 100 years. She writes fiction, nonfiction and public affairs essays. She also performs editing and research and has been a librarian and substitute teacher, according to her website.
Visit McQueen4Congress.word-press.com for more information.