By Steve Brawner

© 2023 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When the Arkansas Legislature convenes for its regular session next week, some of its most recognizable – and colorful – senators of the past few years will be gone.

Among the 13 who are leaving is Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, whose legacy includes the state’s ban on abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger. More than any other senator, Rapert was responsible for the state’s pro-life laws, and none were more consequential than that one. He also sponsored the law creating the Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds. 

Rapert is leaving the Senate after losing his bid to become lieutenant governor to Lt. Gov.-elect Leslie Rutledge, but he certainly made his mark during his 12 years there.

Another departing social conservative is Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Ozark. Ballinger has a jovial personality and approaches lawmaking with an attorney’s mindset. Among his accomplishments was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which he sponsored while he was still in the House of Representatives. It prohibits the state from imposing a substantial burden on a person’s exercise of religion unless the government has a compelling interest. 

Ballinger was defeated in his re-election bid by Sen.-elect Bryan King, R-Green Forest, whom Ballinger beat four years earlier. The cussedly independent King is as colorful as any of the senators who are leaving. 

Ballinger’s fellow departing conservative attorney, Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, chose not to run for re-election, but the Afghanistan veteran and former aide to U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton made a big impression with his combative approach during his six years in office. No one has ever had to question where he has stood on an issue.

On the other side of the aisle, and the ideological spectrum, has been Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, a fiery and passionate liberal who served three terms in the House from 2001 until 2006 and then has been in the Senate since 2009. She is term-limited. 

During her time in office, the former teacher watched her Democratic Party move from dominant to defeated, as only six Democrats will be in the 35-member Senate starting next week. As state politics changed around her, she remained a visible and outspoken official who did not back down from her beliefs. She has formed a nonprofit, Get Loud Arkansas!, which seeks to register and mobilize voters. 

Between Rapert, Ballinger and Garner on the right and Elliott on the left stood Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, the Legislature’s lone independent. Hendren served three two-year terms in the House starting in 1995 and then returned to the Senate in 2013. 

During his time in the House, he was ideologically conservative and part of a small minority of Republicans in a Democrat-led institution. 

When he returned to the Senate. Republicans were ascending, and his uncle, Asa Hutchinson, would be elected governor two years later. As part of a party (and family) tasked with governing, he became more of a centrist consensus-builder, serving two years as Senate president pro tempore. 

After the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he renounced his Republican Party membership, became an independent, and formed a nonpartisan voter education group, Common Ground Arkansas. 

Eight other senators are leaving office – some by choice and some because they were forced to leave by the voters or by the state’s term limits law. The fact that I’m not giving them a paragraph doesn’t necessarily mean they were less effective in the important and often-behind-the-scenes work of passing legislation. Some just made less news, and I only have so much space.

Still, they should be mentioned. They include Sens. Mat Pitsch, R-Fort Smith; James Sturch, R-Batesville; Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis; Cecille Bledsoe, R-Rogers; Larry Teague, D-Nashville; Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs; Charles Beckham, R-McNeil; and Colby Fulfer, R-Springdale.

The 13 departing senators are a diverse group, and they all deserve credit for jumping into what former President Teddy Roosevelt once called the “arena.” Look up the speech if you’ve never read it.

I salute them all and wish them well. Another legislative session is about to start, and this time, I’ll be writing about other people.