John Payton (politician)

John Russell Payton (born January 22, 1967)^[1] is an automobile dealer and auctioneer in Beebe in White County in central Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. His District 64, which he has represented since 2013, includes parts of White and Cleburne counties.^[2] In 2017, he was elected by his colleagues as the House Majority Whip.

Background

Payton is a Sunday school teacher at the Grace Baptist Church in Heber Springs, in Cleburne County. He and his wife, Rhonda Carol Payton (born 1966), have three children, Ambre, Justin, and Tyler Payton.^[3]

Payton is a member of the National Rifle Association and the National Automobile Dealers Association.^[3]

Political life

Payton's district office is located in Wilburn in Cleburne County, some thirteen miles east of Heber Springs. He was elected in District 64 in 2012, when the incumbent Republican, Stephanie Malone, was transferred to District 77. He defeated the Democrat Dennis Knapp, 7,670 (60.7 percent) to 4,967 (39.3 percent).^[4]

Payton serves on these House committees: (1) Aging, Children, and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, (2) Energy, and (3) Public Transportation.^[3]

Representative Payton in 2013 co-sponsored a spending cap on the state budget and amending of state income tax rates. He joined as a co-sponsor the override of the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact legislation to require photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. He further supported related pro-life legislation to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. He co-sponsored legislation to empower university officials to carry weapons for campus safety. He also supported the right of religious institutions to be armed. He supported legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He supported the bill, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurized whole milk directly from the farm to consumers.^[5]

Payton endorsed the businessman Curtis Coleman in the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary. Coleman, however, was handily defeated by the party's 2006 nominee, former U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson, who was defeated that year by Mike Beebe.^[6] Hutchinson rebounded to win the 2014 gubernatorial general election.

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