Kim Hendren
Encyclopedia
Kim D. Hendren is the Republican
minority leader and the chairman of the Energy Committee of the Arkansas State Senate. A native and resident of Gravette
in Benton County
in northwestern Arkansas
, Hendren represents District 9. He is a former Democrat
in the most Republican part of the state. Hendren was defeated by U.S. Representative John Boozman
for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate in the May 18, 2010 primary
to oppose incumbent Democratic Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln.
at Fayetteville
. He is an Independent Protestant who has been active since 1963 in the Gideons International
, the men's group which distributes Bibles in such public places as hotel rooms. He is also active in Kiwanis. Hendren is married to the former Marylea Hutchinson, a sister of former U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson
and former U.S. Representative and former head of the D.E.A.
Asa Hutchinson
. In 2002, Tim Hutchinson lost his reelection bid to Mark Pryor
for the other U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson lost a Senate race in 1986 to Dale Bumpers
and the gubernatorial campaign in 2006 to Mike Beebe. Hendren is an engineer and holds investments in an automobile dealership, real estate, and poultry interests. The Hendrens have four children, Mark, Jim, Gayla, and Hope. His daughter, Gayla, owns the radio station KBVA which carries political advertising for her father's campaigns.
on natural gas. He has also authored a bill to require motorcyclists
to wear helmets or demonstrate proof of health insurance
.
From 1967 to 1969, Hendren served on the Gravette City Council and later the Gravette School Board. In 1978, Hendren was first elected as a Democrat to the state Senate at the same time that Clinton won his first two-year term as governor. Hendren won the Senate seat in 1978, after the incumbent Republican,
Jim R. Caldwell, a Church of Christ
minister from Rogers
, stepped down after a decade in office. During that time, Caldwell was the only Republican serving in the Arkansas Senate.
In 1982, Hendren ran fourth in a five-candidate field, with 21,829 votes (3.85 percent), in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. After defeating Joe Purcell
in a runoff, former Governor Bill Clinton
that year then toppled Republican Frank D. White
, who had unseated Clinton in the Ronald W. Reagan sweep of 1980.
Because Hendren ran for governor, he could not seek reelection to the state Senate. In 2001, he returned to the legislature, having won a single term in 2000—his first as a Republican—in the Arkansas House of Representatives
. In 2003, he returned to the state Senate twenty years after he left the position. He ran unopposed in 2008.
, he referred to Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
of New York as "that Jew" after Schumer had criticized the Republican Party. "I ought not to have referred to it at all. When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn't because I don't like Jewish people. I shouldn't have gotten into this Jewish business because it distracts from the issue... I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on The Andy Griffith Show
," Hendren said, adding that he does not use a teleprompter
and sometimes misspeaks in haste. Schumer said that he accepted the apology. Hendren's comments drew a reprimand from Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee
, who said that "Comments like this are completely inappropriate and don't have any place in public or private discourse."
Hendren opposed the confirmation of United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. He also objects to runaway federal spending while each state is meanwhile required to balance its budget. He opposes Lincoln's vote to subsidize the giant AIG
insurance company.
Hendren said that he favors strict enforcement of immigration laws but would "have to look at" potential amnesty
for illegal immigrants already living in the United States. He opposed charging only in-state college tuition
for children of illegal immigrants living in Arkansas.
Hendren was the first Republican to enter the Senate contest but finished far behind his primary rivals.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
minority leader and the chairman of the Energy Committee of the Arkansas State Senate. A native and resident of Gravette
Gravette, Arkansas
Gravette is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,325 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
in Benton County
Benton County, Arkansas
Benton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the population was 153,406. The U.S. Census Bureau 2010 population is 221,339. The county seat is Bentonville. Benton County was formed on 30 September 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S...
in northwestern Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Hendren represents District 9. He is a former Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in the most Republican part of the state. Hendren was defeated by U.S. Representative John Boozman
John Boozman
John Nichols Boozman is the junior U.S. Senator for Arkansas . A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the U.S. Representative for .Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, he was the brother of state Senator Fay Boozman...
for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate in the May 18, 2010 primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
to oppose incumbent Democratic Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln.
Education and family
Hendren graduated in 1960 with a degree in engineering from the University of ArkansasUniversity of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
. He is an Independent Protestant who has been active since 1963 in the Gideons International
Gideons International
Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible in over 94 languages and 194 countries of the world, most famously in hotel and motel rooms. The organization was founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin, as an early American parachurch...
, the men's group which distributes Bibles in such public places as hotel rooms. He is also active in Kiwanis. Hendren is married to the former Marylea Hutchinson, a sister of former U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson
Tim Hutchinson
Young Timothy Hutchinson, known as Tim Hutchinson is a Republican politician and former senator from the state of Arkansas.Hutchinson was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, and he graduated from Bob Jones University...
and former U.S. Representative and former head of the D.E.A.
D.E.A.
D.E.A. was a short-lived television program which was aired by Fox Broadcasting Company as part of its 1990-91 lineup.D.E.A. was based on true stories of the Drug Enforcement Administration...
Asa Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson
William Asa Hutchinson is a former U.S. Attorney for the Fort Smith-based Western District of Arkansas, U.S. Congressman from the Third District of Arkansas, Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the first-ever Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security at the U.S...
. In 2002, Tim Hutchinson lost his reelection bid to Mark Pryor
Mark Pryor
Mark Lunsford Pryor is the senior United States Senator from Arkansas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party and former Attorney General of Arkansas....
for the other U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson lost a Senate race in 1986 to Dale Bumpers
Dale Bumpers
Dale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as the 38th Governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975; and then in the United States Senate from 1975 until his retirement in January 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Senator Bumpers is currently counsel at the Washington, D.C...
and the gubernatorial campaign in 2006 to Mike Beebe. Hendren is an engineer and holds investments in an automobile dealership, real estate, and poultry interests. The Hendrens have four children, Mark, Jim, Gayla, and Hope. His daughter, Gayla, owns the radio station KBVA which carries political advertising for her father's campaigns.
Legislative service
Known for his folksy demeanor at the capitol, Hendren considers himself a fiscal conservative and voted against changing the Arkansas unemployment law to accept $59 million in federal stimulus money. He voted in February 2009 to support an increase in his state's tobacco tax. In 2008, he backed an increase in the severance taxSeverance tax
Severance taxes are incurred when non-renewable natural resources are separated from a taxing jurisdiction. Industries that typically incur such taxes are oil and gas, coal, mining, and timber industries....
on natural gas. He has also authored a bill to require motorcyclists
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
to wear helmets or demonstrate proof of health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
.
From 1967 to 1969, Hendren served on the Gravette City Council and later the Gravette School Board. In 1978, Hendren was first elected as a Democrat to the state Senate at the same time that Clinton won his first two-year term as governor. Hendren won the Senate seat in 1978, after the incumbent Republican,
Jim R. Caldwell, a Church of Christ
Church of Christ
Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seek to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ. Historically,...
minister from Rogers
Rogers, Arkansas
Rogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964. The city is located in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, in the northwest corner of the state.-History:...
, stepped down after a decade in office. During that time, Caldwell was the only Republican serving in the Arkansas Senate.
In 1982, Hendren ran fourth in a five-candidate field, with 21,829 votes (3.85 percent), in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. After defeating Joe Purcell
Joe Purcell
Joseph Gregory Purcell -References:...
in a runoff, former Governor Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
that year then toppled Republican Frank D. White
Frank D. White
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton in an election. Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was...
, who had unseated Clinton in the Ronald W. Reagan sweep of 1980.
Because Hendren ran for governor, he could not seek reelection to the state Senate. In 2001, he returned to the legislature, having won a single term in 2000—his first as a Republican—in the Arkansas House of Representatives
Arkansas House of Representatives
The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
. In 2003, he returned to the state Senate twenty years after he left the position. He ran unopposed in 2008.
U.S. Senate candidacy
In May 2009, Hendren apologized after it was reported that during a meeting of the Pulaski County Republican Committee in Little RockLittle Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, he referred to Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
of New York as "that Jew" after Schumer had criticized the Republican Party. "I ought not to have referred to it at all. When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn't because I don't like Jewish people. I shouldn't have gotten into this Jewish business because it distracts from the issue... I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
," Hendren said, adding that he does not use a teleprompter
Teleprompter
An autocue is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards...
and sometimes misspeaks in haste. Schumer said that he accepted the apology. Hendren's comments drew a reprimand from Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee
National Republican Senatorial Committee
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate, working to elect Republicans to that body. The NRSC was founded in 1916 as the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee...
, who said that "Comments like this are completely inappropriate and don't have any place in public or private discourse."
Hendren opposed the confirmation of United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. He also objects to runaway federal spending while each state is meanwhile required to balance its budget. He opposes Lincoln's vote to subsidize the giant AIG
AIG
AIG is American International Group, a major American insurance corporation.AIG may also refer to:* And-inverter graph, a concept in computer theory* Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization in the U.S.* Arta Industrial Group in Iran...
insurance company.
Hendren said that he favors strict enforcement of immigration laws but would "have to look at" potential amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
for illegal immigrants already living in the United States. He opposed charging only in-state college tuition
Tuition
Tuition payments, known primarily as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in British English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English and Indian English, refers to a fee charged for educational instruction during higher education.Tuition payments are charged by...
for children of illegal immigrants living in Arkansas.
Hendren was the first Republican to enter the Senate contest but finished far behind his primary rivals.