Lance Eads

Lance Ronaco Eads (born c. 1968)^[1] is a vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce in Springdale, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 88 in a portion of Washington County in the northwestern portion of his state.^[2]

Background

Eads is the son of Vol Leroy and Joyce Gail Eads of Fayetteville, Arkansas. In 1992, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in professional education from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia in Clark County in southern Arkansas. He resides with his wife, the former Kim Hufford, and their two children in suburban Prairie Grove in Washington County.^[2][3] In 2003, he was named a business development manager for a federal credit union; in 2010, he joined the chamber of commerce in Springdale.^[3] He previously resided in Gentry in Benton County and in Lincoln, West Fork, Farmington, and Fayetteville in Washington County.^[1]

Eads is a Southern Baptist and a member of the mega-church, The Cross Church in Washington County,^[2] also known as the First Baptist Church of Springdale. Eads's pastor is Ronnie Floyd, the 2014 president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Political life

From 2011 to 2012, Eads was a justice of the peace in Washington County. In 2014, he unseated in the low-turnout Republican primary election the one-term incumbent, Randy Alexander, also of Springdale, 1,137 to 817 votes (58-42 percent). Eads then ran without opposition in the November 4 general election.^[4] Eads is assigned to the House committees on: (1) Public Transportation, (2) City, County and Local Affairs, and (3) Joint Performance Review.^[2] In February 2015, Eads joined dozens of his fellow Republicans and two Democrats in co-sponsoring legislation submitted by Representative Lane Jean of Magnolia, to reduce unemployment compensation benefits. The measure was promptly signed into law by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.^[5]

That same month, Eads supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion.^[6] The measure passed the House, seventy-two to twenty.^[7] One of the opponents, Democratic Representative Camille Bennett, a former city attorney for Lonoke, Arkansas, called for a reworking of the legislation.^[8] Bennett claimed the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature.^[9] The measure was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Governor Hutchinson.^[10]

References