Jim Hendren

James Paul Hendren (born August 12, 1963)[1] is an American politician serving as a member of the Arkansas Senate from the 2nd district. Since January 2019, he has also served as Senate Majority Leader. He resides in Sulphur Springs in Benton County in Northwest Arkansas.

Jim Hendren
President pro tempore of the Arkansas Senate
Assumed office
January 14, 2019
Preceded byJonathan Dismang
Majority Leader of the Arkansas Senate
In office
January 13, 2015  January 14, 2019
Preceded byEddie Joe Williams
Succeeded byBart Hester
Member of the Arkansas Senate
from the 2nd district
Assumed office
January 2013
Preceded byRandy Laverty
Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
from the 1st district
In office
January 1995  January 8, 2001
Preceded byRailey Steele
Succeeded byKim Hendren
Personal details
Born
James Paul Hendren

(1963-08-12) August 12, 1963
Gravette, Arkansas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Tammy Hendren
Children4
RelativesKim Hendren (father)
Tim Hutchinson (uncle)
Asa Hutchinson (uncle)
EducationUniversity of Arkansas (BS)
Military service
Branch/service United States Air Force
RankLieutenant Colonel

Early life and education

A native of Gravette in Benton County, Hendren spent a semester at Bob Jones University and graduated in 1984 with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Career

From 1984 to 1992, he served in the United States Air Force. A former F-15 fighter pilot, he flew in six intercepts of planes of the former Soviet Union over the Bering Sea. Since 2003, he has been a senior offensive duty guard in the Arkansas Air National Guard. He owns Hendren Plastics Company. He and his wife, Tammy Claire Hendren (born 1964), have four children, Daniel, David, Nick, and Molly. He is a Baptist.[2]

Hendren owns plastics manufacturer Hendren Plastics. In 2020 a Federal judge ordered Hendren Plastics and DARP Foundation to pay more than $1.1 million in back wages and damages to workers who were forced to work without pay at Hendren Plastics. District Judge Timothy Brooks wrote that “They were businesses that manipulated the labor market and skirted compliance with the labor laws for their own private ends,” The DARP Foundation was a work-based rehab in which many participants had their participation court ordered in lieu of incarceration. DARP supplied workers to Hendren’s Hendren Plastics who used them as a “captive workforce.” Not only was the misuse of rehab workers abusive but it also displaced private sector employees at Hendren Plastics who had enjoyed a significantly higher wage than the temporary laborers. Injuries to the workers at Hendren Plastics were commonplace with seriously injured workers being kicked out of the program and sent to prison, this created an incentive to massively underreport workplace injuries.[3]

Arkansas Legislature

Hendren was elected to the Gravette School Board in 1992.[4]

In 1994, Hendren defeated Representative Railey Steele in a race for the Arkansas House of Representatives. He remained a state representative until 2000. During this time, he worked for passage of several pro-life pieces of legislation, including a ban on partial birth abortions in 1996 and the Fetal Protection Law of 1999.[5]

In 2001, Hendren ran unsuccessfully to succeed his uncles, Asa Hutchinson and Tim Hutchinson, representing Arkansas's 3rd congressional district in a special election campaign that was hampered by reports of an extramarital affair.[6][7] Hendren finished third in the Republican primary.

In 2003, Hendren returned to military service and joined the Missouri Air National Guard, of which he holds the rank of lieutenant colonel.[4]

In 2012, Hendren ran unopposed for the state Senate; his initial four-year term expired on December 31, 2016. Re-elected in 2016 election, Hendren serves on the Education Facilities Oversight Committee and the Arkansas Legislative Council. He is a member of four other Senate committees: Budget, Children & Youth, Education, and Energy .[2] Hendren passed legislation exempting All Active Duty and National Guard Personnel from State Income Tax in 2013. He was also appointed chairman of a Joint Task Force charged with reforming Public School and Arkansas State Employee Insurance programs.[8]

Personal life

His father, Kim Hendren, is also a former member of the Arkansas Senate and in a second stint in office a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017. Through his mother, the former Marylea Hutchinson, his cousins include fellow State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson and former State Representative Timothy Chad Hutchinson, sons of former Senator Tim Hutchinson, and Hutchinson's first wife, Donna.

References

Arkansas House of Representatives
Preceded by
Railey Steele
Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
from the 1st district

1995–2000
Succeeded by
Kim Hendren
Arkansas Senate
Preceded by
Randy Laverty
Member of the Arkansas Senate
from the 2nd district

2013–present
Incumbent
Preceded by
Eddie Joe Williams
Majority Leader of the Arkansas Senate
2015–2019
Succeeded by
Bart Hester
Preceded by
Jonathan Dismang
President pro tempore of the Arkansas Senate
2019–present
Incumbent
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