Jimmy Hickey, Jr.

Milton Jimmy Hickey, Jr. (born November 5, 1966) is a self-employed businessman in his native Texarkana, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas State Senate from District 11, which includes Miller, Lafayette and Little River counties plus a portion of Hempstead and Sevier counties.^[1]

Since January 2015, Hickey has been the Senate Majority Whip.

Background

Hickey obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Texarkana, Texas, campus of Texas A&M University–Commerce, then known as East Texas State University. He owns three companies, GBU Operations, Inc., Oak Creek Investment Properties, Inc., and XB Construction. He is a former vice-president of Commercial National Bank of Texarkana, an institution in both Texas and Arkansas with which he was affiliated for twenty-five years.^[2]

Hickey and his wife, the former Denise Lynn Love (born 1969), have one son, Sawyer Hickey. He is a member of the Trinity Baptist Church in Texarkana, Arkansas.^[2]

Political life

From 2004 to 2010, Hickey served for two terms on the Texarkana, Arkansas, School Board and for a time was the board vice-president and the president.^[2] He was elected to the Senate from the revised District 11 in 2012 when he narrowly unseated the Democrat Steve Harrelson, 14,510 to 13,148, formerly the senator from District 21. The previous District 11 senator, the Democrat attorney Robert F. Thompson of Paragould in Greene County in northeastern Arkansas, instead ran successfully in the revised District 20. Hickey's Senate term expires at the end of 2016.^[3]

Hickey serves on these Senate committees: (1) Legislative Joint Auditing, (2) Performance Review, (3) State Agencies and Governmental Affairs, and (4) Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs.^[2] He is a member of the Southern Legislative Conference, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).^[1]

Hickey opposes abortion, having voted to ban the practice after twenty weeks of gestation or whenever fetal heartbeat is determined. He voted to allow university staff to carry concealed weapons.^[4]

In 2013, Hickey joined the Senate majority to amend state income tax rates and to reduce the amount of weekly unemployment compensation benefits. He also voted to test the recipients of unemployment compensation for illegal use of narcotics. He voted successfully to override Governor Mike Beebe's veto of a bill to require photo identification when one casts a ballot in Arkansas. He voted to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He voted to allow handguns to be carried on church properties and sponsored a bill to forbid the release of information on the holders of concealed carry permits. He did not vote on the issue of permitting the sale of unpasteurized whole milk within his state.^[4]

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