FAYETTEVILLE -- Western Benton and Washington counties have their first contested state Senate primary in 20 years.
Sen. Jim Hendren, I-Sulphur Springs, didn't seek reelection in the redrawn Senate District 35. Three Republicans entered the May 24 primary to succeed him: businessman Tyler Dees of Siloam Springs, state Rep. Gayla McKenzie of Gravette and businessman Jeff Tennant of Gentry.
A runoff will be June 21 if needed. A runoff takes place between the leading two candidates from the regular primary if none of them gained a majority of the vote.
No Democrat entered the race for the Senate seat. The winning Republican will face Libertarian candidate Doug Peterson in the Nov. 8 general election. The last contested primary in the area now covered by District 35 took place between Republicans in 2002, election records show.
The state changed legislative district boundaries after the 2020 U.S. Census to equalize population. Population growth led to Bella Vista and other portions of north-central Benton County going from Senate District 35 to new Senate District 34.
District 35 consists mostly of former Senate District 2. It extends along the western state boundary from the Missouri line to as far south as the Murrow community in Washington County. The district extends far enough east to take in portions of western Fayetteville and includes Decatur, Farmington, Gentry, Gravette, Lincoln, Prairie Grove and Siloam Springs.
State senators normally serve four-year terms and receive a base salary of $44,357.
Tyler Dees wants to be a "keeper of the culture" as a state senator, he said.
"We don't want to lose our conservative values," he said. "The thing the voters in the district want most is to be able to protect their children. They want to run their own lives and businesses."
They are also anxious to avoid over-taxation, he said.
The decisive event leading him to run was state mandates on schools, businesses and churches during the covid pandemic, Dees said. Government intervention such as mask mandates and particularly on limiting church gatherings went too far, he said.
"You don't tell people they can't go to church," Dees said. "You have to give some grace to our leaders when the pandemic began, but after two or two and a half years, it became an authoritarian attack on our freedoms," Dees said.
Dees acknowledged Arkansas has one of the most socially conservative state legislatures in the country already. However, keeping a conservative outlook isn't something that is achieved once and maintains itself, he said.
"We have to continue the fight," Dees said.
Even conservative lawmakers who stay in government too long acquire a pro-government point of view and start adding to government power, he said. "I don't believe we should have lifelong politicians," he said.
"Man is not truly free until government is limited," he said.
Dees grew up in Siloam Springs, he said.
"These are the people I grew up playing basketball with," he said of voters in the district.
He said the district needs representation that will look out for small businesses. In particular, the state has too many restrictions on who can hold various kinds of occupational licenses, he said. He and his wife started and sold a lawn care business before he joined Simmons Foods, he said, so they are familiar with the issues small businesses face.
McKenzie is the only primary candidate with experience as an elected official, having served two terms in the state House. She is Hendren's sister and is a lifelong resident of western Benton County. Hendren represented the district after winning election in 2012. Their father, Kim Hendren, served the area as a senator before Jim Hendren.
McKenzie cited her business and life experience as much as her legislative service.
"I've been in business since my mid-20s, building my businesses from the ground up," she said. She was owner of a local radio station, Variety 106.5 in Bella Vista, before starting her current business in decorative stone.
"I learned to be a good listener" while building a clientele for each business, a skill that proved necessary to representing constituents at the state Capitol, she said.
Much of Senate District 35 overlaps McKenzie's current House district, but the Senate district includes a lot of additional area. She is making every effort to be as accessible to the rest of her potential constituents as she is to her existing ones, she said.
"I've been accessible and transparent in the Legislature," McKenzie said. She keeps her constituents informed of issues of interest to them, she said. "Even people who disagree with me can talk to me, and we end the conversation amicably," she said.
McKenzie was one of a few legislators to publicly speak out against rule changes that give the speaker of the House more power, including the power to appoint the chairman and the vice-chairman of House committees. The speaker also has the power to remove them.
"People need to know that," she said. "Power is too concentrated."
District constituents are leery of the government becoming more powerful, McKenzie said. They want a government that is limited but responsive when there is a real need, she said. "Education is huge" among district residents' concerns, she said. She is a member of the House Education Committee.
Jeff Tennant grew up on a family farm near Lincoln. He is a former director of communications for Riceland Foods in Stuttgart who later founded Arkansas Farm & Country magazine. The magazine sold to Rural Press, a multinational publishing company. Tennant took a management position there, becoming president of the company's operations in the United States.
His property management business and long association with the area makes him thoroughly familiar with all parts of the district and its needs, Tennant said. He was active in Future Farmers of America and athletics growing up in the southern part of the district, he said.
"I live and work in the central part of the district and travel and do business in all of it. I truly have a great love and affection for this part of Arkansas.
"Unlike the two others in this race, I have reached a point in life where I can devote time every day and throughout the year to serving as state senator," Tennant said. "I don't work for a large corporation and punch a clock, report to anyone, practice law or run a retail business like my opponents must do. I will have an office in Gentry and be available full time to my only bosses, the citizens of District 35, putting my business, leadership and district experience to work literally every day as the people's senator."
One of the district's needs is for housing the local workforce can afford, he said.
"I have 20-plus rental houses in Gentry, and that gives me a unique and useful view," he said. People need quality homes that are not high rent, he said.
Growth in Northwest Arkansas is spreading west into the rural district, Tennant said. The area needs state resources such as money for infrastructure to manage the growth successfully, he said.
"They want a return on their investment in what they pay the state, and they want a senator who knows how to stretch a dollar," he said of district residents.