Randy Alexander

Background

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Alexander holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Psychology from Texas A&M University in Commerce in northeastern Texas. He and his wife, Patricia, have a son, John Clinton "Clint" Alexander (born 1976). A daughter, Jessica, another source says "Lauren", is deceased. Alexander attends the non-denominational Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas, located in Rogers.

Alexander has held a number of business positions, most recently since 2003 as owner of Alexander & Associates consultants. Since 2011, he has been an advisor to CBI-Sunbelt in Lowell in Benton County, Arkansas. From 2004 to 2011, he was director of campus housing at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in Fayetteville. He is a former security guard and radio host.

He is an officer of the Washington County Republican Party and the Spina Bifida Foundation. He is also active in the Washington County Tea Party movement.

Alexander has previously resided in Johnson City; New York; Wichita, Kansas; Ames, Iowa, and Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Political life

In 2010, Alexander was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United States Senate. The Republican nomination and the election went to U.S. Representative John Boozman.

In 2012, Alexander was elected in state House District 88, when the incumbent Democrat, Uvalde Lindsey, was instead elected to the Arkansas State Senate. Alexander defeated the Democrat Edwin Sugg (born 1960) of Fayetteville, 5,589 (64.8 percent) to 3,042 (35.2 percent).

Alexander served on these House committees: (1) Aging, Children, and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, (2) Performance Review, and (3) Revenue & Taxation.

Representative Alexander in 2013 co-sponsored a spending cap on the state budget, but the measure failed by two votes on the House floor. He voted to override of 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 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 did not vote on a House-approved provision to ban abortion at the point at which fetal heartbreat is detected.

Alexander co-sponsored legislation to empower officials of universities and religious institutions to engage in concealed carry of firearms for campus and church safety. He voted to reduce the fees for obtaining a concealed-carry permit. He voted to prohibit the governor from regulating firearms during an emergency. He voted against legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan, but the measure passed, sixty-three to twenty-four. He sponsored 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. He sponsored failed legislation to prohibit the closure of public schools after a two-year period of declining enrollment.

In the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary, Alexander endorsed the businessman Curtis Coleman, who was handily defeated by the 2006 nominee, former U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas's 3rd congressional district. Hutchinson then lost the general election to current Governor Mike Beebe. Alexander and Coleman had both run in the 2010 primary for the Senate against John Boozman.

Alexander, with 817 votes (42 percent), was unseated in the 2014 Republican primary by Lance Eads of Springdale, who polled 1,137 votes (58 percent).