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Sen. Jimmy Hickey, Jr
From a Texarkana bank’s mail room to leading the Arkansas State Senate, President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, Jr. has climbed his way up the proverbial ladder to a pinnacle of political and business success.
Hickey, a Republican from Texarkana, was first elected to the State Senate in 2012. This year, he’s the upper chamber’s leader. Curiously, he never had an itch for politics and used to joke with his family about his disinterest.
His father, Jimmy Hickey, Sr., was on the Miller County Quorum Court. One election cycle, Hickey, Jr. told him he ought to put “Sr.” on his yard signs “because I didn’t want anyone thinking I was running for anything.”
Eventually, Hickey did serve on the Texarkana School Board during a portion of his only son’s school years. “I thought it was kind of my duty to step forward on that,” he said.
Hickey, 54, devoted his professional career to banking. From his humble high school start in the mail room at Commercial National Bank in Texarkana, he stayed with the bank after graduating from college at East Texas State University, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration. He was moved to collections, promoted to small consumer loans, and retired as senior vice president in 2010.
He planned to develop residential housing and manage rental properties in retirement, but in 2012 while deer hunting, Hickey said he felt a calling to enter legislative politics.
“I was up in my deer stand and it was just laid on me that I was supposed to run for the Arkansas State Senate,” he said. Hickey struggled with the decision for over a week and didn’t even tell his wife, Denise, that he was considering it.
He was so far removed from politics that when he finally gave into the urge, he had to put the state capitol into his GPS in order to come to Little Rock and discuss running with Republican party officials.
“I literally had never been to the capitol before I decided to run,” Hickey said.
He won that 2012 race and won re-election to his third four-year term this past November. His Senate peers elected him to lead them as Senate President Pro Tempore in the 93rd General Assembly, which kicked off in January 2021.
The discipline of banking has served Hickey well in all aspects of his life, especially politics. He says 75% of legislating has to do with banking issues like cars, mortgages, real estate, title business, securities,
PHOTOS: (Opposite page) Sen. Jimmy Hickey, Jr. being sworn in during the 93rd Arkansas General Assembly. (This Page) Hickey asking a question during the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on State Agenices in January 2020. Photos courtesy of Arkansas State Senate
budgetary items, taxes, cash flow, and contracts. He’s a stickler for the details.
“Bankers like to joke that you better read the fine print. Well, I read the fine print. That came from being in banking,” Hickey said.
He also considers his time in “relationship banking” as important to helping him navigate tricky political situations.
“Banking gave me a good feel for things. Sometimes, I get a gut feeling if something might work or if there’s a red flag,” he said. “I was able to deal with people from blue collar laborers to the CEO of a corporation in banking. I’ve dealt with them from all walks of life. It’s helped me communicate with those people, understand those type of people whatever level they may be at.”
Hickey’s Senate District 11 covers a large swath of southwest Arkansas including Lafayette, Little River, and Miller counties and parts of Hempstead and Sevier counties. He serves on the Senate Revenue & Tax committee, Senate Insurance & Commerce committee, Joint Performance Review, and Joint Retirement and Social Security committees. Hickey is also a member of the Joint Budget committee, Arkansas Legislative Council and Legislative Joint Auditing committee.
