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Alan Clark

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Alan Clark
Image of Alan Clark

Republican Party

Candidate, Arkansas State Senate District 7

Arkansas State Senate District 7
Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor
Prior offices
Arkansas State Senate District 13
Successor: Jane English

Compensation

Base salary

$44,356/year

Per diem

For legislators residing within 50 miles of the capitol: $59/day. For legislators residing more than 50 miles from the capitol: $166/day.

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 8, 2022

Next election

November 3, 2026

Personal
Religion
Christian
Profession
Business executive
Contact

Official website

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Alan Clark (Republican Party) is a member of the Arkansas State Senate, representing District 7. He assumed office on January 9, 2023. His current term ends on January 11, 2027.

Clark (Republican Party) is running for re-election to the Arkansas State Senate to represent District 7. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]

On September 27, 2022, Clark was suspended from the Arkansas State Senate until January 8, 2022, following an ethics committee ruling that he had filed a retaliatory complaint against another senator .[1]

Biography

Alan Clark lives in Lonsdale, Arkansas.[2] Clark's career experience includes working as the vice president and chief operating officer of Clark’s Building and Decorating Center. He has served on the board of directors of the National Lumber Building Materials Dealers Association, on the Garland County Quorom Court, as the president of the Mid-America Lumberman’s Association, and as the president of the Central Arkansas Ace Team.[2][3]

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Clark was assigned to the following committees:

2021-2022

Clark was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Clark was assigned to the following committees:

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

Arkansas committee assignments, 2017
• City, County and Local Affairs, Chair
• Education
• Joint Budget
• Joint Budget
• Joint Energy
• Joint Energy

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Clark served on the following committees:

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Clark served on the following committees:

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Elections

2026

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for Arkansas State Senate District 7

Incumbent Alan Clark is running in the general election for Arkansas State Senate District 7 on November 3, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Alan Clark
Alan Clark (R)

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

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Endorsements

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2022

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Arkansas State Senate District 7

Incumbent Alan Clark won election in the general election for Arkansas State Senate District 7 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Alan Clark
Alan Clark (R)
 
100.0
 
23,852

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 23,852
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Alan Clark advanced from the Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 7.

2020

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Arkansas State Senate District 13

Incumbent Alan Clark defeated Brandon Overly in the general election for Arkansas State Senate District 13 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Alan Clark
Alan Clark (R) Candidate Connection
 
75.2
 
26,069
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Brandon Overly (D)
 
24.8
 
8,604

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 34,673
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Brandon Overly advanced from the Democratic primary for Arkansas State Senate District 13.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 13

Incumbent Alan Clark defeated Jeff Crow in the Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 13 on March 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Alan Clark
Alan Clark Candidate Connection
 
68.1
 
6,899
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Jeff Crow
 
31.9
 
3,235

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 10,134
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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2016

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2016

Elections for the Arkansas State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on March 1, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing period began at noon local time on November 2, 2015, and ended at noon local time on November 9, 2015.[4]

Incumbent Alan Clark ran unopposed in the Arkansas State Senate District 13 general election.[5]

Arkansas State Senate, District 13 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate
    Republican Green check mark transparent.png Alan Clark Incumbent (unopposed)
Source: Arkansas Secretary of State



Incumbent Alan Clark ran unopposed in the Arkansas State Senate District 13 Republican Primary.[6][7]

Arkansas State Senate, District 13 Republican Primary, 2016
Party Candidate
    Republican Green check mark transparent.png Alan Clark Incumbent (unopposed)

2012

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2012

Clark ran in the 2012 election for Arkansas State Senate, District 13. Clark ran unopposed in the May 22 Republican primary and defeated incumbent Mike Fletcher (D) and Frank Gilbert (L) in the general election on November 6, 2012.[8][9][10]

Arkansas State Senate, District 13, General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngAlan Clark 52.4% 15,768
     Democratic Mike Fletcher Incumbent 44.2% 13,288
     Libertarian Frank Gilbert 3.4% 1,013
Total Votes 30,069

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Alan Clark has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Alan Clark, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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2022

Alan Clark did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Candidate Connection

Alan Clark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clark's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a pro-life pro-second amendment businessman who has a passion for children and families. I lead the Arkansas state legislature in child welfare reform and have a passion for education issues, especially reading. If we teach children to read the whole world is opened up to them.
  • I will continue to fight for families and children and lead the fight for child welfare reform.
  • I will continue to fight for all of our children to read and for parents to have the rights to make decisions for their own family's education.
  • I will continue to lead the legislature in constituent service and fighting for my constituents when they run into problems with state agencies.
Child Welfare Reform

Education
Reading
Dyslexia
Career Education
Economic Development
Citizen Water Rights
Justice for all regardless of income
Parental Bill of Rights

School Choice
The people I look up to is a long list. But I remember my Mom reading me the story of Davy Crockett when I was very young and his motto of "Be sure your are right and then go ahead." That has always stuck with me.
I can 't say there would be 1 book. There probably is and I haven't read it. The Federalist Papers. Lots of the writings of our founding fathers. The Book of Proverbs. Jesus's words in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Although George Washington and Thomas Jefferson weren't of the same party I have read little of either I did not agree with, The same goes for John Adams, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. I find the words of Alex de Tocqueville on the United States quite amazing. I found little if anything of Ronald Reagan I disagreed with.
Honesty

Persistence
Empathy for working people, especially the working poor
And understanding of how the economy and business really works
A true belief in and knowledge of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights
A sense of justice and a hatred of injustice
A thick skin
A sense of humor, especially about one's self
Curiosity about the world
Respect for others, genuine respect for where they come from and how they think
The ability to problem solve, compromise and give a little
Love for people
Energetic and hard worker

Ability to work with others and be part of a team

Persistence

Honesty
Tenacity
Listener
Hard worker

Patience with people
Represent your distinct, know what they are thinking, know what they would do if they knew what you know, be ready and willing to go back and explain your vote,

Be out in the district as much as possible.
Return phone calls.
Help people whenever you can.

Find problems in government and fix them if possible.
That all Arkansas children can read proficiently and that we are known for protecting children from child abuse without unnecessarily interfering with families and putting families back together where possible. All while making Arkansas a better place to work and providing Arkansans with better jobs.
I remember watching the first lunar landing on TV. I was 8, just short of my 9th birthday.
Clark's Building and Decorating Center
Mom and Dad started the business in 1973 when I was 12 and I still work there as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Behind the Bible because that is too cliche

The Richest Man in Babylon

It is written in fable form which I love and wish it had been 1000 times as long and the subject was how to acquire wealth and be successful in business. That short little book is far better than anything else I have read on the subject.
Robin Hood.

If he is fictional :-)
I Won't Back Down -Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Working when I should be sleeping.
The House representing smaller areas is more sensitive to local school districts and towns. Senate areas being larger tend to cause the senate to look more at the big picture.
Yes and no. I think my own experience on the local county quorom court helped get me ready for the process. But so did serving on an Ace Hardware board, a local Ace hardware dealer board, and a lumbermen's board. I think it provides some benefit but not an overwhelming amount. Having dealt with people and big decisions is more important. But even then it is most important I think that we draw from people of all walks of life.
Right now it is the COVID challenge and the economic fallout that is going on and will continue into the future and the health consequences. Beyond that, we must teach our kids to read. That is the foundation of economic development and all education. We must deal with our infrastructure needs. We must deal with the decay of the nuclear family and the resulting problems to overall society, education, the justice system, and our economic system. We must find better ways to deal with welfare and health care. We must develop water and sewer better for our citizens and for economic development rather than using them as a feudal political tool.
The governor should lead and encourage ideas from the legislature. The governor should look for buy-in for his ideas and look for the legislature to refine them and make them better rather than rubber stamp them. Ideally, it should be a situation of mutual respect and if not at least a system of checks and balances.
Relationships are the foundation for accomplishing anything in the legislature. People who respect you, feel you respect them, and are rooting for you if they are not firmly against your idea are essential to accomplishing anything of substance in the legislature.
I would favor the state legislature doing all state and federal redistricting within the state with certain rules set out such as incumbents shall not be drawn out of their districts, or into others. District should make as much geographic and political (people of like economic, social, and political commonalities as possible and sensible.
Chairing Judiciary was a dream because I can accomplish so much on child welfare reform from there. Once on the committee I discovered there were so many other justice issues I was interested in. I hate that I cannot serve on both Education and Judiciary. I spent 6 years on Education, chair the Education Caucus and have a passion for improving education in our state. I have found that anything dealing with kids I have a passion for and love the Children and Youth Committee and the Child Welfare Investigatory Committee which I founded and chair. I love Joint Performance Review which I still serve one and chaired for 2 years because you can investigate anything. That is where I led the first investigation into child welfare. I chaired City County Local and still serve on it. I like it because I was able to attack the water rights issue from there and we deal with local issues there. I served on the Energy Committee for 2 years and throughly enjoyed that because I was to get many questions answered on energy I had for years. I serve on Agriculture and vice chaired it for 4 years and enjoyed working with our farmers and Farm Bureau. I serve on Budget and Audit and like both for the reasons the title implies. I like to be sure the money is spent right. I love legislative council which I have served on for 6 years because it runs government in conjunction with the governor when we are not in session.
State Senator Terry Rice is always calm, cool and collected. He is often quiet but when he speaks you listen. We vote the same most of the time but when we disagree I know before I ask I will respect his reasons for voting differently. He thinks everything through and is committed to doing the right thing, regardless of how much pressure may be applied. When stabbed in the back and he has been big time, he didn't say a cross word or accuse people. He just did his job and went about his business.
I would not rule it out. But it is a tremendous honor to be in the state senate and I love it. I am able to make a difference and help people and I do not know if I could be this happy in any other job. You probably have to be a bit of an egomaniac or narcissist to be one of 135 state legislators in the state and to think that you are the one special enough to be elected to statewide or federal office.
There are so many touching stories, especially in child welfare. So the most touching could be a family who has their child who probably wouldn't if I hadn't intervened. But I think the most touching to me at the moment is a friend who has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and shared with me how when he uses medical marijuana, for a few moments he gets a little bit of muscle use back that he had lost. Yet we had too few producers and the highest prices in the country.

I never, as a fundamental evangelical thought I would be crusading for more marijuana producers.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Noteworthy events

Suspension from Arkansas State Senate (2022)

’’See also: Noteworthy professional misconduct in American politics (2021-2022)’’

On September 27, 2022, Clark was suspended from the Arkansas State Senate until January 8, 2022. Clark had previously filed a complaint against Sen. Stephanie Flowers (D) for receiving per diem payments for legislative meetings she attended virtually. The complaint was rejected after the ethics committee found that Flowers had received the payments due to a clerical error and had returned the funds. The committee ruled that Clark had filed the complaint as retaliation for being removed from his leadership position on July 21, 2022, after it was discovered that he requested reimbursement for a meeting he did not attend. The Senate approved the ethics committee's recommendation to suspend Clark in a 26-4 vote.[1][11]

In response to the ruling, Clark said, "How can we be expected to fight corruption and wrongdoing in government if we can’t reveal and stand against our own questionable behavior? I am saddened for this body that I love, more than anything else."[1]

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Alan Clark campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2022Arkansas State Senate District 7Won general$152,776 $27,979
2020Arkansas State Senate District 13Won general$195,279 N/A**
2016Arkansas State Senate, District 13Won $48,453 N/A**
2012Arkansas State Senate, District 13Won $95,358 N/A**
Grand total$491,866 $27,979
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Arkansas

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Arkansas scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.


2024


2023


2022


2021


2020


2019


2018


2017


2016


2015


2014


2013



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External links

Officeholder

Arkansas State Senate District 7
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 KY3, "Arkansas state senator suspended over filing frivolous complaint," September 27, 2022
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Arkansas Senate, "Alan Clark," accessed April 6, 2023
    3. ↑ Hickey Arkansas State Legislature, "Senator Alan Clark," accessed October 5, 2019
    4. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2016 Election Dates," accessed November 17, 2015
    5. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2016 General Election and Nonpartisan Runoff Election," accessed November 23, 2016
    6. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "Candidate Information," accessed July 25, 2016
    7. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2016 Primary Election Results," accessed April 19, 2016
    8. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "Election Results 2012," accessed November 7, 2012
    9. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2012 Election candidates," March 8, 2012
    10. ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "Official 2012 Primary Results," accessed December 20, 2013
    11. ↑ AP News, "Arkansas Senate strips 2 lawmakers of leadership posts," July 21, 2022
    12. ↑ Ballotpedia, "Arkansas's Freedom Scorecard," accessed July 10, 2017

    Political offices
    Preceded by
    Colby Fulfer (R)     		Arkansas State Senate District 7
    2023-Present    		 Succeeded by
    -
    Preceded by
    -     		Arkansas State Senate District 13
    2013-2023    		 Succeeded by
    Jane English (R)


    Current members of the Arkansas State Senate
    Leadership
    Majority Leader:Blake Johnson
    Minority Leader:Greg Leding
    Senators
    District 1
    District 2
    District 3
    District 4
    District 5
    District 6
    District 7
    District 8
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    District 10
    District 11
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    District 13
    District 14
    District 15
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    District 17
    District 18
    District 19
    District 20
    District 21
    District 22
    District 23
    District 24
    District 25
    District 26
    Vacant
    District 27
    District 28
    District 29
    Jim Petty (R)
    District 30
    District 31
    District 32
    District 33
    District 34
    District 35
    Republican Party (28)
    Democratic Party (6)
    Vacancies (1)


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