Senator Tim Hutchinson

Young Timothy Hutchinson (born August 11, 1949) is an American politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was the first Republican U.S. senator to represent Arkansas since the Reconstruction era and the first to be popularly elected. Over the course of his congressional career, he served in the United States Congress from 1993 to 2003, contributing to the legislative process during three terms in office and representing the interests of his Arkansas constituents during a significant period in American political history.

Hutchinson was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, the son of John Malcolm Hutchinson, Sr. (1907–1991) and Coral Virginia (Mount) Hutchinson (1912–1998). He was raised on the family farm in nearby Gravette, Arkansas, where he grew up in a rural environment that would later inform his political outlook and connection to the state’s northwest region. His family ties would become deeply interwoven with Arkansas politics; his brother Asa Hutchinson would later serve as governor of Arkansas and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and other relatives would also hold state legislative offices.

Hutchinson pursued higher education at Bob Jones University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later continued his studies in political science, earning a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1990. His academic training in political science complemented his emerging involvement in public affairs and provided a foundation for his subsequent legislative and policy work at both the state and federal levels.

Hutchinson’s formal political career began in the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he served from 1985 to 1992, representing part of Fort Smith. During this period, he established himself within the state Republican Party at a time when the party was still consolidating its strength in Arkansas. In 1992, when longtime Republican U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt announced his retirement from Arkansas’s 3rd congressional district, Hutchinson sought the open seat. He won the Republican nomination by defeating fellow state lawmaker Richard L. Barclay of Rogers and then faced Democrat John VanWinkle, an attorney from Fayetteville, in the general election. In a notably close race for one of the South’s most reliably Republican districts, Hutchinson prevailed by about 7,500 votes, a margin of roughly five percent, aided by a 10,000-vote margin in his native Benton County. The closeness of the contest was attributed in part to Bill Clinton’s narrow victory in the district during his successful 1992 presidential campaign. Once elected, Hutchinson quickly consolidated his position, and the district reverted to its traditional Republican pattern; he was reelected in 1994 with 63 percent of the vote.

In 1996, Hutchinson ran for the United States Senate seat being vacated by popular Democratic Senator David Pryor. Initially, Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee was considered the leading Republican contender, but when Democratic Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned after a mail fraud conviction, Huckabee assumed the governorship and withdrew from the Senate race. Hutchinson entered the contest, secured the Republican nomination, and faced Arkansas Attorney General Winston Bryant in the general election. Despite President Bill Clinton, an Arkansas native, carrying the state by a 17-point margin over Bob Dole in the presidential race, Hutchinson defeated Bryant 53–47 percent, again benefiting from strong support in his former congressional district. He thereby became the first Republican senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction and the first Republican from the state to be elected to the Senate by popular vote. His service in the Senate, from January 3, 1997, to January 3, 2003, coincided with a period of intense national debate over domestic policy, foreign affairs, and the role of the federal government.

As a U.S. senator, Hutchinson developed a record consistent with conservative Republican positions. He opposed abortion, supported tax cuts, and favored deregulation of the economy. He supported the death penalty and a proposed constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, opposed same-sex marriage, and opposed expanding federal hate-crimes legislation. In 1998, he joined Republican Senators Bob Smith of New Hampshire and James Inhofe of Oklahoma in opposing President Bill Clinton’s nomination of James Hormel, an openly gay man, as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg; Hormel was later appointed through a recess appointment. Hutchinson served on several key Senate committees, including the Armed Services Committee, the Special Committee on Aging, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He was one of sixteen co-sponsors of the Iraq Resolution (S.J. Res. 46), reflecting his support for a robust U.S. posture in international security matters. During his tenure, he also participated in ceremonial and commemorative functions of Congress, including honoring the Little Rock Nine at the award ceremony for their Congressional Gold Medals.

Hutchinson sought reelection to the Senate in 2002 and faced Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor, the son of former Senator David Pryor. During his Senate term, Hutchinson had divorced his first wife, Donna Hutchinson, a future Arkansas state representative, after nearly three decades of marriage; the divorce was finalized in 1999. In 2000 he married Randi Fredholm Hutchinson, a former senior member of his staff. Although Hutchinson denied any impropriety and Pryor declined to make the personal matter a central campaign issue, the widely publicized divorce and remarriage were seen as politically damaging in a socially conservative state. Pryor’s campaign also benefited from the continued popularity of his father, who appeared in campaign advertising. In the November 2002 election, Hutchinson was defeated by an eight-point margin, making him the only Republican incumbent senator to lose reelection that year. His departure from the Senate in January 2003 ended a decade of continuous service in Congress.

After leaving elected office, Hutchinson transitioned to a career in government relations and lobbying in Washington, D.C. In January 2003 he joined the law firm Dickstein Shapiro as a senior adviser, working on federal policy and legislative matters. By March 2016, he was serving as a senior director in the Washington, D.C., office of Greenberg Traurig, a prominent international law firm, continuing his involvement in public policy from the private sector. A lobbying report dated January 8, 2021, indicated that Hutchinson paid The Tolman Group $10,000 to lobby for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump on behalf of his son Jeremy, who had been convicted of bribery and tax fraud; President Trump did not grant the requested pardon.

Hutchinson’s family has remained deeply involved in Arkansas politics. With his first wife, Donna, he has three sons: Jeremy Hutchinson, a former state representative; Timothy Chad Hutchinson, also a former state legislator; and Joshua Luke Hutchinson. His brother Asa Hutchinson succeeded him as the member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas’s 3rd congressional district, later served as undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and was elected governor of Arkansas. Tim and Asa Hutchinson are brothers-in-law of Arkansas State Senator Kim Hendren, who married their sister Marylea in 1958; Hendren later sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010 but lost the primary to Congressman John Boozman. Kim Hendren’s son, Jim Hendren, was elected in 2012 to the Arkansas State Senate from District 2 in Benton County. Hutchinson resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with his second wife, Randi Fredholm Hutchinson, who practices law in Washington, D.C., while he continues his work as a lobbyist and remains a notable figure in the modern history of Arkansas’s Republican Party.