Eads seeks return to state Senate

SPRINGDALE — State Sen. Lance Eads, R-Spring dale, announced Wednesday he will seek re-election.

Eads ran for his first term in the Senate in 2016 at the urging of Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Eads already announced plans to seek re-election to the state House. Hutchinson persuaded him to change plans after the District 7 incumbent, then-Sen. Jon Woods, dropped out. Woods was later convicted on corruption charges.

District 7 covers much of eastern Washington County from south of Elkins to the Benton County line in the north. It includes portions of Tontitown in the west and extends through Springdale to the Madison County line on the east.

Eads is a vice president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. He has campaigned on a pro-growth, pro-jobs platform since his first race for the House in 2014.

“What my constituency keeps telling me is to keep things moving forward,” he said Wednesday. “This region is the economic engine of the state. We need to make sure that continues.”

Eads supported the road program passed in the recently concluded legislative session and co-sponsored the resolution putting an extension of the half-cent sales and use tax for highways on the 2020 ballot. He also supported lowering the state’s income tax.

Eads won his first GOP primary for the Senate in 2016 against then-Washington County Justice of the Peace Sharon Lloyd. He faced no Democratic opposition in the general election that year. Eads has no announced opposition yet.

Partisan primaries in Arkansas are the first Tuesday in March during presidential election years. Therefore, next year’s primary is set for March 3. Candidate filing for partisan office begins at noon Nov. 4 and ends at noon Nov. 12. State Senate members serve four-year terms and receive an annual salary of $40,188.