Mark Pryor is the Democratic senior senator from Arkansas, elected in 2002. He is the son of former Democratic Sen. David Pryor, and grew up in southern Arkansas, Little Rock and the Washington area, the latest in several generations of politically active Pryors in Arkansas. His grandmother, Susie Newton Pryor, was the first woman in Arkansas to run for office after women won the right to vote. David Pryor was elected to the U.S. House in 1966, as governor in 1974 and to the Senate in 1978. Mark Pryor graduated from the University of Arkansas and its law school in the 1980s. He practiced law in Little Rock and was elected to the Arkansas House in 1990 and 1992. He became the state attorney general at age 35, the youngest attorney general in the nation (but not in Arkansas history: Bill Clinton won the office at 30). In 1995, he was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He underwent tendon transplant surgery in his left heel in 1996; the cancer has not returned. Read More

Mark Pryor is the Democratic senior senator from Arkansas, elected in 2002. He is the son of former Democratic Sen. David Pryor, and grew up in southern Arkansas, Little Rock and the Washington area, the latest in several generations of politically active Pryors in Arkansas. His grandmother, Susie Newton Pryor, was the first woman in Arkansas to run for office after women won the right to vote. David Pryor was elected to the U.S. House in 1966, as governor in 1974 and to the Senate in 1978. Mark Pryor graduated from the University of Arkansas and its law school in the 1980s. He practiced law in Little Rock and was elected to the Arkansas House in 1990 and 1992. He became the state attorney general at age 35, the youngest attorney general in the nation (but not in Arkansas history: Bill Clinton won the office at 30). In 1995, he was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He underwent tendon transplant surgery in his left heel in 1996; the cancer has not returned.

As attorney general, Pryor implemented the state’s “Do Not Call Registry.” He also pushed for legislation to increase penalties for nursing home accidents and to strengthen background checks for long-term care employees. He worked to reduce utility rates and to remove unsafe products from day care centers. In July 2001, Pryor announced that he would run against Sen. Tim Hutchinson, the first Republican to win an Arkansas Senate seat since 1879. A Baptist minister, radio station owner and founder of a Christian school in Rogers, Hutchinson represented that conservative area in the Legislature and then for two terms as the 3rd District representative in Congress. Hutchinson’s conservative voting record would ordinarily have made him a favorite for re-election. But in June 1999, Hutchinson filed for divorce from his wife of 29 years, and in August 2000, he married a former member of his staff. Pryor never mentioned Hutchinson’s divorce and remarriage, but a recurrent theme in his campaign was “Tim Hutchinson has changed”—even though the incumbent’s positions on issues had not changed much at all.

However, one of Pryor’s earlier positions had changed, rather dramatically. Running for attorney general in 1998, Pryor had called himself a “pro-choice” candidate. But in the Senate contest, he emphasized his belief that abortion was wrong except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. He avoided saying whether or not the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion should be overturned. Pryor also campaigned on his support for gun rights, increased military spending, and for the Iraq war resolution. He accused Hutchinson of working for special interests, especially the pharmaceutical companies, and for supporting plans that would risk Social Security benefits. Pryor called Hutchinson “way too conservative” for Arkansas.

But he also appealed to cultural conservatives unhappy with Hutchinson’s personal life by emphasizing his marriage and his Christian religion. One of Pryor’s ads showed him, his wife and their two children saying grace before a meal. Pryor, holding a Bible, says, “The most important lessons in life are in this book right here.” The Pryors belonged to an evangelical church in Little Rock and sent their children to a private Christian school. He turned down an invitation to appear with Hutchinson on Meet the Press, explaining that voters wouldn’t be able to watch “because they’re in church Sunday morning.” He pulled ahead in polls in mid-year and never really fell behind. He won 54%-46%, a solid victory in a year when Democrats lost their majority in the Senate. A survey by pollster John Zogby showed that 12% said Hutchinson’s divorce affected their vote—enough by itself to explain his drop from 53% in 1996 to 46% in 2002. Hutchinson’s losses were particularly great in his home area. In 1996, he had won 65%-35% in the 3rd Congressional District; in 2002, he carried the district 56%-44%.

In the Senate, Pryor established a conservative voting record for a Democrat. He backed efforts to weaken Clinton-era environmental controls (although he later voted against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). He voted against a resolution supporting Roe v. Wade, and in 2006, Pryor voted with Republicans for a bill that would make it a crime to help a minor avoid parental notification laws by traveling to another state for an abortion. He voted against a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages, saying the issue should be left to the states, and then supported a state ballot measure in 2004 banning same-sex marriage in Arkansas. In 2003, Pryor voted against the omnibus appropriations bill that contained $300 million for Arkansas projects and against the $350 billion Bush tax cut. “I just can’t support these budgets that send our deficits and national debt soaring out of control,” he said.

The crowning achievement of Pryor’s first term was a bill imposing sweeping changes on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Passed in 2008, the legislation mandated that products be tested by independent laboratories, restricted levels of lead allowed in children’s toys, and increased the budget for consumer safety to $105 million from $80 million. He has also advocated stronger parental controls for the Internet, and has encouraged movie rental chains and retailers to put up signs warning parents about the content of video games. Pryor has led efforts on legislation to prevent price gouging in the oil supply chain, to make the national “Do Not Call” list permanent, and to require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to curb hiring of illegal immigrants.

Pryor has been deeply involved in energy policy, meeting with a group of seven other senators from both parties to come up with proposals for moving the United States away from its reliance on oil-based energy. The group in 2009 proposed a bill to cut industrial carbon emissions and promote energy conservations and efficiency. But as a centrist, he drew the line when the Environmental Protection Agency moved that year to begin regulating greenhouse gases after Congress failed to enact a Democratic bill imposing caps on carbon emissions. Pryor said that Congress, not the EPA, should be in charge of setting broad policy on the issue. The issue of gun control also has Pryor sometimes straddling the political divide. In August 2009, he switched his vote to support Republican Sen. John Thune’s bill to allow gun owners with concealed-carry permits to bring firearms into states with similar laws after it was apparent that it lacked the 60 votes needed to pass.

His centrist voting record has put him in the center of the several other high-profile debates. In 2007, Pryor joined all the other Senate Democrats in co-sponsoring a bill backed by labor unions to effectively abolish the secret ballot in union elections by eliminating a company’s ability to demand a secret ballot before employees can join a union. But as the issue heated up, and major companies including Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores came out strongly against the unions’ so-called card check bill, Pryor indicated he would not co-sponsor it again. In March 2010, he said, “There are more pressing issues relating to the economy that the Senate should be addressing.” In 2009, Pryor waded into the health care battle by saying he would support a government-financed health insurance option backed by many Democrats only if the states could opt out. Although the public option had been dropped by the time the Senate voted on a final bill, Pryor joined two other Senate Democrats in voting no. He said he objected to the bill’s increased Medicaid costs to the states, new taxes, and fees on employers who do not offer health insurance. Pryor also took conservative stances on other key issues, voting in September 2010 to block debate on the repeal of the ban on openly gay military personnel and advocating extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts, even those for wealthy Americans that the Obama administration had said should be allowed to expire.

Republicans hoped to target Pryor in 2008, but failed to field a candidate. He raised $5.5 million and, opposed by only a Green Party candidate, was re-elected with 80% of the vote. He was the only senator who did not draw a major-party challenge to his re-election that year. It was quite a contrast with the fate in 2010 of his Democratic colleague, Blanche Lincoln, who lost to GOP Rep. John Boozman by 58%-37%. Pryor comes up for re-election in 2014.