92nd Arkansas General Assembly

Sessions

• The Regular Session of the 92nd General Assembly opened on January 14, 2019. It adjourned sine die on April 24, 2019.
• Governor Asa Hutchinson called for a special session to begin March 26, 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing recommendations, the 35 senators met in the 100-seat House chamber, and the House met in the Jack Stephens Center basketball arena on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus.
• The Fiscal Session began April 8, 2020 and concluded April 24.

Major events

Vacancies

• Representative John Walker died on October 28, 2019. The Democratic primary to fill the seat was held January 14, resulting in a runoff between Joy Springer and Ryan Davis. The runoff appeared to end in a tie until a ballot arrived from Sweden, giving Springer the one-vote win. She defeated independent candidate Roderick Talley on March 3 and was sworn March 18, 2020 to fill the seat for the remainder of the term.
• Representative Mickey Gates made national news in 2018 for failing to pay taxes for 15 years, but had resisted calls for his resignation. The House voted to expel Gates in October 2019, leaving his seat vacant until a special election. Richard McGrew won a special election on March 3 to fill the seat for remainder of the term. He was sworn in on March 18, 2020.

Legislative summary

• The governor's priority, state government reorganization, merged state agencies from 42 to 15 under the Transformation and Efficiency Act of 2019.
• Act 182 cuts Arkansas's top individual income tax rate from 6.9 percent to 5.9 percent over two years.

Senate

Leadership

Floor Leaders

Senators

House of Representatives

Leadership

Floor Leaders

Representatives