John Boozman

Republican senior Senator of Arkansas

  • Senator

    Arkansas

    January 3, 2023 - January 3, 2029

12

Congresses Served

5

House Terms

3

Senate Terms

December 10, 1950 (74 years old)

Birthday

  • American politician and former optometrist
  • Served as the senior United States senator since 2011
  • Previously served as the U.S. representative for Arkansas’s 3rd congressional district from 2001 to 2011
  • Dean of Arkansas’s congressional delegation
  • Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas
  • Brother of the late state senator Fay Boozman
  • Attended the University of Arkansas, played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and graduated from the Southern College of Optometry
  • Co-founded a private optometry clinic in 1977
  • Worked as a volunteer optometrist for low-income families
  • Served two terms on the Rogers Public School Board
  • Elected to Congress in a special election in 2001
  • Served as assistant majority whip and sat on the Republican Policy Committee in the House
  • Advocated for drug policy issues and chaired the Veterans’ Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee
  • Led the passage of bills expanding services for unemployed veterans
  • Defeated Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln in the 2010 Senate election
  • Ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade and the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies
  • Senior member of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
  • Became the senior senator from Arkansas in 2015
  • Re-elected in 2016 and 2022
  • Initially objected to the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count but supported it after the Capitol attack
  • Has served on multiple Senate committees and caucuses, including the Air Force Caucus and Senate Broadband Caucus
  • Opposes abortion and supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
  • Has an A rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund
  • Voted against the Affordable Care Act and both of Trump’s impeachment trials
  • Supported withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement
  • Co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act
  • Voted against creating a January 6 commission to investigate the Capitol attack
  • Lives in Rogers with his wife, Cathy Marley Boozman, and has three daughters
  • Underwent emergency heart surgery in 2014 and a successful follow-up procedure in 2017