Mark Lowery

Lowery graduated in 1975 from Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood in Pulaski County. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. In 2000, he obtained a master's degree in Communication from the same institution. From 2003 until 2014 he was a speech instructor and debate coach at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in Faulkner County near Little Rock. Recently he taught Communication at Henderson State University. He was previously executive director of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in Arkansas and a lobbyist for the Arkansas Rental Dealers Association and the Professional Insurance Agents of Arkansas. Lowery served as a chief of staff in the office of Lt. Governor to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, an unsuccessful candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.[1]

Lowery won the 2012 Republican primary for House District 39 by only nine votes. He then defeated Democrat Kelly Halstead, 6,687 to 6,071, in the November 6 general election. Incumbent Republican Ed Garner was term limited after holding the office for three terms.[3] Lowery serves on these House committees: (1) Education and (2) Insurance and Commerce Committee.[4]

Lowery currently serves as House chair of the Insurance and Commerce Committee. He also serves on the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC) and Joint Performance Review.

Lowery has a strongly conservative legislative voting record. He joined the needed simple majority to override the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe, Huckabee's successor, to enact legislation requiring photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation; he was a co-sponsor of both of these bills. Lowery voted to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. He voted for curriculum standards for Bible instruction in public schools and backed legislation to allow handguns on church properties. He voted to empower university officials to carry weapons in the name of campus safety. He voted to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He co-sponsored the bill, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurized whole milk directly from the farm to consumers.[5]