Senator Clarke Tucker was elected to the Senate in November of 2020, where he currently represents District 14. His district runs from downtown Little Rock through Chenal Parkway, including all neighborhoods between the Arkansas River and I-630. Senator Tucker also served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019.
During his legislative career, Senator Tucker has fought for Arkansans’ access to quality and affordable healthcare. He advocated for and helped preserve Arkansas’s landmark Medicaid expansion program. He fought for paid maternity leave for state employees. Further, he sponsored legislation (Act 423 of 2017) to create Arkansas’s Crisis Stabilization Units, which serve as places, other than a local jail, where a person suffering from a mental health crisis may be taken to receive treatment and become stable without burdening the criminal justice system.
Senator Tucker has also created the pathway (Act 640 of 2023) for the Arkansas Imagination Library program to provide age-appropriate books to kids in Arkansas from birth to age 5. To this point, the Arkansas Imagination Library has delivered more than 5 million books to kids, free of charge to them.
Senator Tucker has battled hunger and food insecurity in Arkansas. Among other efforts, he championed and helped pass legislation in 2023 (Act 656) that provided free school breakfast and lunch to 49,000 low-income Arkansans, and then legislation in 2025 (Act 123) that expanded that program to provide free school breakfast to every public-school student in Arkansas.
Senator Tucker is a staunch advocate of government transparency and protector of Arkansas’s landmark Freedom of Information Law. He sponsored Act 505 of 2025 to help define what information elected officials must discuss at public meetings in order to conduct official business with a knowledgeable public.
Senator Tucker has fought to reform Arkansas’s criminal justice system in ways that improve public safety, reduce the taxpayer burden, and improve outcomes for incarcerated individuals, all at the same time. Among other efforts, he has sponsored legislation to reduce recidivism (Act 670 of 2025), to lessen the impact of fees in the justice system (Act 989 of 2025), to create intermediate programming for those on probation or parole who commit non-violent, non-sexual misdemeanor crimes or technical violations (Act 423 of 2017), to create a restricted driver’s license for parolees and probationers to be able to drive to and from work (Act 1012 of 2017), and to require risk and needs assessments of juvenile offenders, so that young people who commit minor offenses are not sent to a detention center to be with serious and violent offenders (Act 1023 of 2015).
Senator Tucker proudly supports Arkansas’s first responders. He has sponsored legislation (Act 537 of 2023 and Act 398 of 2025) to ensure that they are entitled to receive mental health treatment for the work they do for us. He has also sponsored legislation to create the firefighters bill of rights (Act 686 of 2025) and to strengthen a law providing that firefighters receive compensation for line-of-duty death from occupational cancer (Act 416 of 2025).
Senator Tucker has fought for strong ethics in government. For example, in 2017, then Representative Tucker was the lead House sponsor of Act 430 and Act 431, ethics legislation that broadened the definition of criminal offenses concerning abuses of public office. Tucker was the lead House sponsor of Act 1270 to increase the penalties for abuse of a public trust, making it a Class B felony if the offender benefitted by $25,000 or more and a Class C felony if the benefit is greater than $5,000.
Senator Tucker has likewise fought to improve Arkansas’s economy, for Arkansans’ right to vote and for direct democracy, to honor and respect veterans, to protect families, and for educational opportunities for children.
Senator Tucker is the vice chair of the Senate Ethics Committee and the Senate Efficiency Committee. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Joint Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, the Joint Budget Committee, Arkansas Legislative Council, the Code Revision Commission, and the Joint Retirement and Social Security Committee. He also serves as the Assistant Pro Tempore for Arkansas’s Second Congressional District.
Senator Tucker earned a B.A. in government from Harvard University in 2003. He graduated with a J.D. degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 2006. He has practiced law in Little Rock since 2008, after a two-year judicial clerkship. He also serves as a mediator.
Senator Tucker is active at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, where he currently serves on the Vestry and as Chancellor, and he has previously served as Senior Warden. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Imagination Library, and he is the founder and Board Chair of the Pulaski County Imagination Library.
He is the founding Chair and current Board member of the Tiger Foundation, an organization that benefits and supports Little Rock Central High School. A proud alumnus and former student body president, Senator Tucker is a past coach of Central’s mock trial team. He is also past president of the Central High School Alumni Association Board of Directors. He was proud to sponsor legislation to create a Little Rock Central High commemorative license plate (Act 808).
Senator Tucker lives in Little Rock with his wife, Toni, and their two children.
