Political party Republican Role Politician Name Josh Miller | Religion Baptist Occupation Businessman Party Republican Party | |
Preceded by Gary Deffenbaugh (transferred to District 79) Residence Heber Springs, Cleburne County, Arkansas, U.S. Alma mater Heber Springs High School
Heber Springs campus of Arkansas State University Education Arkansas State University, Heber Springs High School | ||
Joshua D. Miller, also known as Josh Miller (born 1981), is a property manager from Heber Springs, Arkansas, who has been since 2013 a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. His District 66 includes portions of Cleburne, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties in the north-central portion of his state.
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Background
Miller is disabled and uses a wheelchair because of an accident in young adulthood which damaged his spinal cord and involved the use of alcohol. Neither Miller nor the other occupant could recall who was the driver. Miller was uninsured at the time of the accident; Medicaid paid for the majority of the $1 million in hospitalization and rehabilitation costs. Coincidentally, Miller's father had muscular atrophy and was in a wheelchair for many years. The father's example convinced Miller that he too could live a full life. Miller serves on the Governor's Commission for People with Disabilities.
Miller graduated in 1999 from Heber Springs High School and thereafter earned an associate degree from the Arkansas State University campus at Heber Springs. He is a Baptist.
Political life
From 2009 to 2012, Miller was a member of the Heber Springs City Council. In 2012, Miller won the Republican state House primary over Phillip D. "Phil" Grace (also born 1981), a Cleburne County justice of the peace from Heber Springs, 1,653 (56.4 percent) to 1,279 (43.6 percent). In the general election, he defeated the Democrat Jeffery M. "Jeff" Pistole of Clinton in Van Buren County, 7,493 (65 percent) to 4,032 (35 percent).
Miller serves on these House committees: (1) State Agencies and Governmental Affairs and (2) Public Transportation.
Representative Miller in 2013 voted to establish a spending cap on the state budget and co-sponsored a measure to amend state income tax rates. He joined as a co-sponsor the required majority to override the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact legislation to require photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. He further supported related pro-life legislation to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. He co-sponsored legislation to empower officers of universities and religious institutions to carry weapons for self-defense. He supported legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He voted to establish a tiered system for lottery scholarships. Miller did not vote on the bill, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurized whole milk directly from the farm to consumers.
Despite his past personal reliance on Medicaid, Miller opposes Medicaid expansion in Arkansas under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.