Today, we are featuring Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in our series. Pryor represents what is becoming the norm for red state Democrats that is a political figure who would be conservative enough to be a Republican in New England, but it is progressive enough to be a Democrat in Dixie.
Pryor was born on Jan. 10, 1963, in Fayetville, Ark. He is currently the third youngest U.S. senator behind Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Col.) and Kristen Gilibrand (D-NY), who is Hillary Clinton's succesor.
Pryor is the junior senator from Arkansas behind Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) who is also out of favor with some national Democrats for being too conservative.
Pryor was elected in 2002. He beat out incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) in part of the Republican's divorce from his wife of 29 years which subsequently lead to his marriage to a congressional aide.
Mark Pryor holds the same seat that his father David Pryor held from 1979 to 1997, when the senior Pryor was replaced by Hutchinson. Mark Pryor was the only Democrat to unseat an incumbent Republican in the U.S. senate during the 2002 election cycle.
Pryor was featured in the Bill Maher documentary "Religulous," which questions the reasoning and logic behind the world's three most popular faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
In an interview with Maher during the film, Pryor was very open about his evangelical views. Pryor is also a member of the secretive evangelical politicians group known as The Family, which has recently been plagued with scandals since two of its members Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R) of South Carolina have publicly acknowledged extra-maritial affairs.
Pryor was one of 12 Democratic senaotrs to vote for the controversial Military Commisions Act of 2006, which admits evidence obtained through torture. He was also one of six Democrats to vote for the confirmation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales though he called on him to resign in 2007 when questions about Gonzales' handling of the office came into light.
The Arkansas senator endorsed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for the Demoratic primary.
Pryor surprsingly faced no Republican opponent during last year's election cycle, and his term will expire in five years.
No comments:
Post a Comment