A native of West Memphis in Crittenden County in easternmost Arkansas, Sanders graduated in 1993 from Walnut Ridge High School in Walnut Ridge in Lawrence County in the northeastern portion of his state. In 1997, he received a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Mass Communications from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia in Clark County, Arkansas. He and his wife, Rebecca, a high school choral director, have five children. He is the director of institutional advancement for the Arkansas Baptist School, a Christiancollege preparatory school in Little Rock. From 2000 until 2009, Sanders wrote a column published by Stephens Media Group and carried in some two dozen newspapers statewide. He hosted and produced the program Unconventional Wisdom for the Arkansas Educational Television Network. He has contributed to the network's long standing weekly public affairs programArkansas Week. Sanders' work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and World Magazine. In 2002, Arkansas Business named Sanders one its prestigious "40 Under 40", which recognizes 40 notable Arkansans under the age of 40. Sanders, who at the time was pursuing a career in both business and media claimed that he once wanted to run for office, but enjoyed business and "writing about politicians".
Political life
In his 2010 election to the state House in District 31, Sanders defeated the Democrat Debbie Murphy, 9,729 to 5,825. The position opened when the Republican incumbent Dan Greenberg, a Little Rock lawyer, ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in District 22 against Jeremy Hutchinson, who in 2013 was switched to District 35. Still in his first term in the House, Sanders in 2012 won the Republican nomination in Senate District 15 over Ed Garner. He then triumphed in the general election held on November 6, 2012, having defeated the Democrat Johnny Hoyt, 17,759 to 14,700. The seat opened when the Democratic incumbent David Burnett of Osceola was shifted to District 22 through redistricting. Sanders' term extends until 2018.
ALC-Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions
ALC Peer Review Committee While serving in the House, Sanders was a founding member of the Fayetteville Shale Caucus, now known as the Legislative Oil and Natural Gas Caucus.
Senate duties
In the 2013, Sanders passed legislation cracking down waste, fraud and abuse in the state's Medicaid program—including in the creation of the state's Office of Medicaid Inspector General. In addition, Sanders has to his credit sweeping laws that corrected years of structural problems with Arkansas’ parole system. He passed the first reduction in the state's income tax rates and reformed the state's worker's compensation laws for motor carriers. Sanders is one of the architects of Arkansas’ Private Option, the conservative alternative to President Barack Obama’s Medicaid expansion contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Poorer Arkansans under the plan can purchase private insurance with the help of premium assistance, instead of being relegated to the Medicaid rolls. Republican governors in Iowa, Utah, and Indiana have proposed plans similar to Arkansas’ innovative model. Currently Sanders is working with members of a bipartisan task force to reform the Arkansas’ State Employees and School Employees Health Insurance Plan.
As a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Sanders, wrote the Athlete Agent Reform Act of 2011, which has been recognized by the NCAA as the nation's strongest legislation targeting illegal activities of sports agents. He also sponsored the state's first ethics law targeting Arkansas’ banking, insurance, securities and utility, regulators. Sanders has voted to lower the sales tax on food, to reduce taxes on the purchase of used vehicles and to reduces taxation of the utility bills of manufacturers. As a state representative, Sanders received the Advocate for Justice Award from the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association for his work on behalf of crime victims.
