Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hardman Seeking Representative's Job

O. Brown Hardman has announced his candidacy for State Representative for District 36.

Hardman, an Arkadelphia businessman, made the announcement Monday, March 13, saying he is running as a Democrat in the May 23 primary.

The Clark County native is a graduate of Arkadelphia High School, and earned his bachelor of arts degree from Henderson State University, where he majored in psychology.

He is an Army veteran, having served as an officer in the US Army and Army Reserves.

For the past 30 years he has served a variety of roles in city and county government. He was an Arkadelphia city director for 12 years, where he served on a number of boards and commissions.

Hardman helped organize the Clark County Industrial Council and has been its president for the past four years. He is known throughout the state for his role as a leader in industrial recruitment.

In addition, he has worked with the area's young, coaching pee wee football, Little League baseball and Babe Ruth teams. Hardman served as president of the Clark County Babe Ruth organization also.

Hardman and his wife, Carolyn, have two grown children, Kimberly Nation, of Tulsa, Okla., and Brad Hardman of Arkadelphia. They have one grandchild and are members of the First United Methodist Church of Arkadelphia.

"Because current Rep. Percy Malone and State Sen. Mike Ross are term limited from seeking reelection," he said, "it is vitally important our next representative knows how to promote economic growth for our people.

"Never in our history have we had more opportunity to grow and prosper. I want to serve the people of this district as their state representative.

"Crime is a great concern for all citizens. I will work to make criminal laws that will ensure quick and certain punishment. While we must punish criminals, our state representatives must seek solutions other than just building additional prisons. We have too few resources to waste on housing prisoners, rather than education or training our people.

"I would consider being able to serve the citizens of Clark and Nevada counties as their state representative the very highest honor I could achieve during my lifetime," he said.

Hardman added he plans to ask every voter in district 36 for their vote.