He is the president of Branscum and Harness Lumber, Inc. a hardwood sawmill company located in Marshall, and he owns and operates Branscum Farms, a commercial cattle farm. Branscum and his wife, Judith Ann Branscum, have five sons. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Marshall, a Southern Baptist congregation.
Political life
From 1997 to 2010, Branscum served on the Searcy County School Board, including three terms as the president. In 2010, Branscum won the District 90 House seat vacated by term-limited Republican Roy Ragland by defeating Democrat Mark Hamilton Swaney of Huntsville in Madison County, 7,253 to 2,394. In 2012, Branscum was switched to reconfigured District 83 for his second legislative term, and he ran without opposition. The incumbent Democrat, Leslee Jane Milam Post of Ozark in Franklin County, was moved to the reconfigured District 82, but she was unseated by the Republican educator Bill Gossage, also of Ozark. Branscum is the chairman of the House Energy Committee and serves on these panels: Public Health, Welfare, and Labor, Arkansas Legislative Council, and Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development. In 2013, Branscum co-sponsored the amending of state income tax rates and supported the proposed spending cap on the state budget, but the latter measure failed by a two-vote margin in the House. He joined the majority to override the vetoes of Democratic then GovernorMike Beebe to enact legislation to require photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. He was a co-sponsor of both of those measures. Branscum supported related legislation to outlaw abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of a fetus a felony in certain cases. On gun issues, Branscum co-sponsored allowing officials of religious institutions to carry concealed weapons. He voted to give the same power to university officials. He did not vote on a measure to reduce the application fee for obtaining a concealed carry permit, but the proposal was defeated in the House. Branscum co-sponsored the measure which prohibits the governor from regulating firearms during an emergency. He voted to prohibit the closing of schools based on a two-year pupil enrollment analysis and to establish a tiered system of lottery scholarships. Branscum voted to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan, which passed the House, sixty-three to twenty-four. He co-sponsored the bill to establish a tiered system of lottery scholarships. Branscum voted for the bill, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurizedwhole milk directly from the farm to consumers. In 2011, Branscum voted to set state standards for biblical instruction in public schools, to authorize dress codes, and to prohibit the use of cell phones within school zones. He voted to prohibit driver's license tests from being administered in any language other than English. He co-sponsored the Capital Gains Reduction Act and the reduction of taxes on manufacturers' utilities. Branscum voted against the U.S. congressional redistricting act, which passed the House, 61–20.
