David Branscum

David Lawdon Branscum (born 1958) is a lumberman and cattleman in his native Marshall in Searcy County in northwestern Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. His reconfigured District 83, which he has represented since 2013, includes parts of Searcy, Newton, Pope, and White counties. From 2011 to 2013, he represented District 90, now held by the Republican Skip Carnine of Rogers in Benton County.^[1]

Background

Branscum graduated in 1977 from Marshall High School^[2] and thereafter procured bachelor's degrees in Agriculture and Economics in 1982 from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.^[1][3]

He is the president of Branscum and Harness Lumber, Inc. a hardwood sawmill company located in Marshall, and he owns and operates Branscum Farms, a commercial cattle farm.^[2]

Branscum and his wife, Judith Ann Branscum (also born 1958), have five sons. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Marshall, a Southern Baptist congregation.^[2]

Political life

From 1997 to 2010, Branscum served on the Searcy County School Board, including three terms as the president.^[2]

In 2010, Branscum won the District 90 House seat vacated by the term-limited Republican Roy Ragland by defeating the Democrat Mark Hamilton Swaney (born 1953) of Huntsville in Madison County, 7,253 (75.2 percent) to 2,394 (24.8 percent).^[4]

In 2012, Branscum was switched to reconfigured District 83 for his second legislative term, and he ran without opposition. The incumbent Democrat, Leslee Jane Milam Post (born 1973) of Ozark in Franklin County, was moved to the reconfigured District 82, but she was unseated by the Republican educator Bill Gossage, also of Ozark.^[5]

Representative Branscum is the chairman of the House Energy Committee and serves on these panels: (1) Public Health, Welfare, and Labor, (2) Arkansas Legislative Council, and (3) Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development.^[1][3]

In 2013, Representative Branscum co-sponsored the amending of state income tax rates and supported the proposed spending cap on the state budget, but the latter measure failed by a two-vote margin in the House. He joined the majority to override the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact legislation to require 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 those measures. Branscum supported related pro-life legislation to outlaw 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.^[6]

On Second Amendment issues, Branscum co-sponsored allowing officials of religious institutions to engage in the concealed carry of firearms. He voted to give the same power to university officials in the name of campus safety. He did not vote on a measure to reduce the application fee for obtaining a concealed carry permit, but the proposal was defeated in the House. Branscum co-sponsored the measure which prohibits the governor from regulating firearms during an emergency. He voted to prohibit the closing of schools based on a two-year pupil enrollment analysis and to establish a tiered system of lottery scholarships. Branscum voted to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan, which passed the House, sixty-three to twenty-four. He co-sponsored the bill to establish a tiered system of lottery scholarships. Branscum voted for 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.^[6]

In 2011, Branscum voted to set state standards for biblical instruction in public schools, to authorize dress codes, and to prohibit the use of cell phones within school zones. He voted to require that driver's license tests be administered only in the English language. He co-sponsored the Capital Gains Reduction Act and the reduction of taxes on manufacturers' utilities. Branscum voted against the U.S. congressional redistricting act, which passed the House, sixty-one to twenty.^[6]

References