Arkansas House District 92 includes all of Grant County, parts of Saline County and the town of Hensley. Right now, incumbent Republican Rep. Julie Mayberry is facing a Democratic challenger named David Murray in the race.
The Mayberry family has had the district locked in for a few years. Before Julie Mayberry was the representative in House District 92, her husband Andy Mayberry served two terms in the legislature. Throughout their 27-year marriage, the two of them have almost taken turns running for the state representative position in their district.
Before she was a Representative herself, Mayberry would help her husband strategize and talk to constituents. She first decided to run after her husband tried to become lieutenant governor, leaving the House seat open.
“My husband kept saying ‘why don't you run for it?’” she said. “And I went ‘oh I can't do that,’ and he said ‘why not?’ And then I just realized, oh, maybe I can.”
Mayberry ran unopposed in her first election and has held the position since 2018. The last time there was a Democratic challenger in the district was against her husband in 2016. Andy Mayberry got 69% of the vote.
Rep. Mayberry had several ideas for bills she could put forward in 2025. Most of them had to do with health care. Her daughter has spina bifida and she has talked before about the state's caregiver shortage.
“Those caregivers are being paid minimum wage,” she said. “And they very easily could go get a job working in a fast food restaurant or a big box store making $18, $20 an hour.”
Mayberry is also passionate about helping those with dementia— she lost her mother to the disease the same day she was first sworn into the legislature. She currently serves as co-chair of the legislative Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Advisory Council, and is hoping to put forward some legislation about dementia research.
Mayberry is also interested in legislation to clamp down on maternal mortality, as Arkansas has one of the highest rates in the nation. As a mother of four, she says she knows how life-changing having a child can be. Typically, people go to the doctor about six weeks after they give birth, and in Arkansas, Medicaid only covers you for the first 30 days.
“That six-week appointment comes too late,” she said. “And if we could send a nurse to every new mom to help check on mom and baby, to make sure that they are doing well mentally and physically, I think we can make huge improvements.”
Her Democratic opponent, David Murray, is a retired contractor. He used to work building home-goods stores and value hotels across the middle of the country.
Murray has lived in Arkansas for decades. He supports very conventional progressive policies. He supports abortion rights, while Mayberry doesn't. In conversations with Little Rock Public Radio, he was a little thin on what policies he would try to pass. He did say he would roll back some conservative legislation the house has passed.
“I support freedom,” he said. “I support the government deciding to stay out of my bedroom, stay out of my pocket, stay out of the process of twisting our children into fascist little monsters.”
Murray summed up his decision to run this way:
“I find that our legislature is going way too far to the right side.”
Murray’s criticism had very little to do with his opponent and more to do with his disagreements with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the legislature writ large. He didn't like that Sanders held a special session to gut the Freedom of Information Act and didn't agree with the education law known as the Arkansas LEARNS Act.
Mayberry and Murray have pretty similar views on a lot of issues. Mayberry does not support major rollbacks to FOIA, and was one of a few Republican lawmakers to vote against LEARNS.
Among many things, LEARNS gives tax money to private schools. Mayberry says her reasoning for voting against it was that her constituents did not support LEARNS. She has been complimentary about parts of the law, like raising teacher salaries, but wishes it hadn't been packaged alongside other parts of the law in a large omnibus bill.
Murray is opposed to the law for different reasons. He called LEARNS “indoctrination," and said public dollars should go to public services. He wishes the state would use their surplus and put money back into the public school system.
When asked about Gov. Sanders' goal to eliminate the state's income tax, Mayberry was worried it could cause services to be cut elsewhere in the budget.
“Will we ever be able to completely get rid of our state income tax? I'm not quite so sure, because of my fear that we would see property taxes increase, we would see sales taxes increase.”
Murray had the exact same concern.
“She's going to have to generate money somewhere, and when you jack up sales tax, it only hurts poor people.”
Both candidates will be on the ballot for voters in Arkansas House District 92 in November.
