Hendren announces he’s leaving the GOP
LITTLE ROCK — Sen. Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs announced Feb. 18 he’s bolting the Republican Party to be an independent, saying the ”final straw” was the Jan. 6 riot at the nation’s Capitol.
“I haven’t changed. My party has,” Hendren said in an eight-minute video posted on Twitter.
He said he’s founded a group called Common Ground Arkansas that will find and support leaders willing to work together instead of pushing people apart.
“We want to encourage the trip across the aisle and make it easier to resist the forces that continue to push both parties to extremes. We want to provide a home for those who don’t feel comfortable with either party, while also working with reasoned and responsible leaders from both parties.”
Hendren, rumored to be considering a run for governor, said Thursday he doesn’t have a specific timetable to decide whether he’s a candidate for that office in 2022.
“This is not about me starting a governor’s campaign,” he said. “We’ll look at it down the road.”
Hendren, 57, has served in the state Senate since 2013 and spent the last two years as the Senate president pro tempore.
The owner of Hendren Plastics was in the state House of Representatives from 1995-2001, where he sometimes was a critic of then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican.
Hendren served four years as the Senate GOP leader and four years as the House GOP leader.
He made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in the 3rd Congressional District in a special election in 2001.
Hendren is a nephew of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is barred from seeking re-election under the state’s term limits amendment.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Huckabee’s daughter and a former press secretary for then-President Donald Trump, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge have announced their bids to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2022. A political newcomer, Little Rock Democrat James Russell, has said he’s also running for governor.
Current session
During the ongoing regular legislative session, Hendren has proposed a hate crimes bill that has drawn the opposition of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was also the only Senate Republican to vote against stand-your-ground legislation now in the House Judiciary Committee. In his video, Hendren said the Legislature too often is unable to function for the people of Arkansas because “we have let ourselves become deaf to other folks’ needs and perspectives” and the political parties too often encourage and reward that.
He said he decided to leave the Republican Party and have no party affiliation because “my commitment to our state and to our country is greater than loyalty to any political party.”
Hendren said he and his family have long been active members in the Republican Party. His father, Kim Hendren, is a former lawmaker. His sister is Rep. Gayla McKenzie, R-Gravette.
Jim Hendren said it would be easy to blame on one person or a few people the nation’s worsening political discourse, increased inability to agree on simple facts, and changes that embolden the worst impulses and the most extreme thinking.
“But sadly it runs more deeply and cuts more broadly than that,” Hendren said.
During the 2016 campaign season, he said he heard people demonized as rapists and murderers, and watched the encouragement of the worst voices of racism, nationalism and violence. He saw his military service and the service of his fellow service members dishonored with the ridicule of a Gold Star family whose son served with distinction. He said he also saw a hero of his, U.S. Sen. John McCain, called a loser on national TV.
“I watched the former president actively fan the flame of racist rhetoric, make fun of those with disabilities, bully his enemies and talk about women in ways that would never be tolerated in my home or business,” Hendren said.
He said he worried about the example set for his sons and grandsons by Trump and that party leaders too often took a back seat to holding the former president accountable.
Final straw
“Then for months, I watched as members of my own party and our former president tried to overthrow the results of a fair and free election … with lies, with false statements, conspiracy theories and attempts to subvert the constitution,” he said.
That led to the violent events at the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 and “for me, that day was the final straw,” Hendren said.
Hendren said he voted for Trump’s re-election in November in what he described as a difficult vote.
He said he still had hoped to turn around the GOP at that time, but changed his mind after attempts by U.S. senators not to certify the presidential election results and after the Jan. 6 riot.