ROGERS — Grant Hodges announced his bid Monday to replace Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, who is prohibited from seeking re-election because of term limits.

“I’m pretty sure I’d be the first person elected to state office who was born in the ’90s,” said Hodges, who was born in 1990 and is running as a Republican for the District 96 House seat.

“This district has a history of electing a fresh face and someone who isn’t afraid to shake things up,” Hodges said. “There isn’t any way around it, I’m a young guy. But I’m old enough to know what I believe in. I believe in conservative principles, including educating every child whatever their ZIP code and financial status.”

Hodges supports charter schools and school choice, he said.

“Duncan followed the Walmart rule, where he wouldn’t even take a cup of coffee from a lobbyist,” Hodges said. “I’d definitely be happy to continue doing that. I’d also like to make campaign finance more transparent. Campaign finance reports should all be electronic and searchable. Ethics rules should have more oversight on the front end and classes in them should be mandatory for anyone running for office.”

Hodges has volunteered to help in Republican campaigns since 2008, and has been active in campaigns in the region. Since graduating the University of Arkansas last year, he worked with the America Rising political action committee, he said. The conservative group supports the election of a Republican in Arkansas’ U.S. Senate race. Hodges left that job to concentrate full time on his race, he said.

If elected, Hodges wants to make the legislator’s job full time if that proves financially possible, he said.

Scandals such as the indictment of the former state treasurer on bribery charges and the recent resignation of the lieutenant governor over ethics violations have made people more distrustful of government, Hodges said.

“There are 29,000 to 30,000 people in a House district, and if I’m elected representative I will never forget that what I do reflects on them,” he said.

Hodges said that Republicans have a tendency to support tax cuts indiscriminately.

“I really don’t think a tenth of 1 percent of a cut here and there really changes any dynamics. I’d like to see a tax cut on, for instance, the purchase and repair of manufacturing equipment. I also think the utility tax on businesses should be reduced.” He also supports cutting taxes on benefits paid to military veterans.

Hodges would oppose the “private option” expansion of health care benefits, he said. Baird was one of the chief legislative architects of the plan.

“It’s a big issue, and I have friends on both sides of it,” Hodges said. “The bottom line is, we can’t afford it. I know the first three or four years the federal government would bear the whole cost, but the thing I can’t get an answer to is how we’re going to pay for it after we pick up a 10 percent share of the cost. We’re going to be either raising taxes or cutting something when that happens.

“The Republican Party became the majority party because the people don’t want Obamacare,” Hodges said. “That’s why they elected us.”