Grant Hodges

Grant Logan Hodges (born May 1990),^[1] is a political consultant from Rogers, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 96 in a portion of Benton County in the northwestern corner of his state.^[2]

Background

Hodges is a former resident of Ozark in Christian County in southwestern Missouri, where he graduated from high school. In 2012, he was named a finalist for a Harry S. Truman Scholarship while a student in the Honors College of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He was the chairman of the Senate for the UA Associated Student Government. He was also the youngest member of the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Committee, which earmarks spending from the municipal beautification fee.^[3]

In 2013, Hodges received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Arkansas. He was an intern that summer for the conservative Heritage Foundation with special study in the field of health care. He is a member of the National Rifle Association. He is a Baptist.^[4] In college he worked in the 2010 campaign to elect Republicans John Boozman to the U.S. Senate and Mark Darr as lieutenant governor.^[3]

Political activities

In 2014, Hodges entered the Republican primary to choose a successor to the term-limited Duncan Baird of Lowell, Arkansas, who subsequently joined the administration of Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson as the budget director. Hodges won the nomination, 1,395 (69 percent) to 635 (31 percent) for Damon Dale Wallace (born c. 1969) of Gateway. The youthful Hodges carried the backing of State Senators Bart Hester and Cecile Bledsoe and the elderly former U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas's 3rd congressional district, who subsequently died on April 1, 2015. Hodges was only two years of age when Hammerschmidt retired from Congress.^[5][6]

In the November 4 general election, Hodges with 4,330 votes (59 percent), prevailed over the Democrat Tom McClure, who polled 2,605 votes, and the Libertarian Michael J. Kalagias (born c. 1968) of Garfield in Benton County, who held the remaining 375 ballots.^[7] Hodges is assigned to the House committees on: (1) Education and (2) Insurance and Commerce.^[2]

In February 2015, Hodges supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion.^[8] The measure passed the House, seventy-two to twenty.^[9] One of the opponents, Democratic Representative Camille Bennett, a former city attorney for Lonoke, Arkansas, called for a reworking of the legislation.^[10] Bennett claimed the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature.^[11] The measure was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Governor Hutchinson.^[12]

Hodges also supported legislation which allows public school teachers to withdraw memberships from labor unions at any time of their choosing, rather than making an irrevocable annual decision each August.^[5]

References