Jason Rapert

Stanley Jason Rapert (born April 3, 1972) is an American politician from the state of Arkansas, who served as a member of the Arkansas State Senate from 2011 to 2023 and represented the 35th district.

Rapert was elected in 2010 to the Arkansas State Senate, representing the 18th district.

At a 2011 Tea Party rally, Rapert said, "we're not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in".

Rapert later claimed that his remarks about minorities were taken out of context.

The "minority" comments Rapert made in 2011 referenced both Barack Obama and a ballot initiative (Arkansas Proposed Initiative Act No. 1 (2008)) stricken as unconstitutional that prohibited unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting.

The Arkansas act had been criticized for prohibiting gay couples from adopting.

As a result of decennial redistricting, he sought reelection in the 35th district in 2012, when he defeated Democrat Linda Tyler.

In 2013, a federal judge stopped the law from being implemented, saying it was likely unconstitutional.

In the general election held on November 4, 2014, Rapert won a four-year term in the state Senate by defeating Democrat Joel Pearson, 13,483 votes to 10,267.

Rapert supports banning abortion even for victims of rape and incest, as well as banning exceptions for the health of the mother.

Rapert authored a bill to ban all abortions in Arkansas after twelve weeks of pregnancy.

Then-Governor Mike Beebe (D) vetoed the bill as unconstitutional, but "the Republican-led Legislature overrode his veto."

On June 30, 2015, the Jason Rapert for Arkansas Senate Facebook page announced, in response to a post suggesting that the rights of minorities are not subject to majority wishes, that "we the majority grant you rights by choice."

Later on that same day, the Facebook page accused Max Brantley and the Arkansas Times as a whole, of reporting that Rapert does not "recognize God has endowed us with natural rights that are given by God that no man can take away."

While running for the Arkansas General Assembly, Rapert stated: "Traditional marriage in our society has always been between one man and one woman. I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that protects that right now and forevermore."

As a member of the Arkansas Legislative Council, a powerful committee in the Arkansas General Assembly, Rapert proposed a non-binding resolution to "urge the Arkansas Supreme Court to overturn a circuit judge’s ruling striking down Arkansas’ same-sex marriage ban."

Rapert initially proposed impeaching the judge who issued the ruling, but later stated he wanted to establish a system of judicial recall.

On June 7, 2015, Rapert took to Facebook to "urge everyone to contact the Conway City Council and Mayor Tab Townsell in opposition to allowing activists to march through the streets of Conway on a Sunday to mock Christian values and accuse Christians of being bigots", in protest of the Conway Gay Pride Parade that was scheduled to take place later that same day, which he deemed an anti-Christian activity.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, responses to the Facebook post were "largely mocking".

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized gay marriage, Rapert claimed that the Court's ruling was unconstitutional.

Rapert encouraged public officials "to refuse to comply with an unjust ruling that violates religious freedom and states rights".

Rapert sponsored a bill in 2015 which would require the secretary of state to allow for the installation of the monument.

The monument was challenged by the ACLU as being a violation of clauses in both the federal and state constitutions prohibiting the government from favoring any religion.

The Satanic Temple had successfully challenged a similar monument in Oklahoma in 2015, and in both locations has offered to install a bronze monument to Baphomet as a symbol of religious pluralism and freedom.

In February 2015, Rapert stated that the United States should use nuclear weapons in response to the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the State's petition for a writ of certiorari to review the case.

The State of Arkansas was ordered to pay over $97,000 in attorneys' fees and costs to the prevailing plaintiffs before the Supreme Court decision was finalized.

In November 2016, Arkansas became the first state in the Bible Belt to legalize medical marijuana, passing by nearly 70,000 votes.

Rapert publicly opposed the ballot, and both introduced legislation to ban the consumption of medical marijuana in smoking form, and sponsored legislation to delay the program as long as federal laws banning marijuana remain on the books.

When pointed out to him during an interview that it can easily be considered hypocrisy that he would oppose medical marijuana in favor of federal law, while opposing marriage equality in spite of federal law, he responded with "Watch your language with me or we'll stop the interview".

Rapert has pushed for the installation of the privately funded Ten Commandments Monument on the Arkansas state capitol grounds.

In 2017, Rapert took to Facebook and compared LGBT people to Nazis stating: "The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers. Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology."

The first version of the monument was installed in 2017, and was destroyed less than 24 hours later.

Legal challenges were suspended until a replacement monument could be installed.

The new version, with protective concrete bollards, was unveiled April 27, 2018.

The monument was again challenged by the ACLU, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, and The Satanic Temple.

In January 2020, Rapert suggested cutting funding for PBS and AETN for the appearance of gay actor Billy Porter on Sesame Street by stating: "I can pass a bill to cutoff all funding for the rebroadcast of PBS programming through AETN and also stop all funding for AETN altogether if necessary".

A Facebook commentor asked "if Jesus would approve of your judgment and intolerance?"

To which he replied: "You are totally amiss and you know it. Christians do not support anti-Biblical behavior. The Bible is clear on certain sins — including homosexuality. Romans Chapter 1 and the Book of Jude just to cite two examples are very clear about this issue. Jesus never endorsed homosexual behavior and opposed it as he referenced Sodom and Gomorrah. Speaking the truth is not hatred. If you oppose the Bible, you are not a sincere Christian."

In February 2023, Rapert said on an episode of Save The Nation that the Christians must take authority over the drag queens running this place, by stating that: "We must take authority, God told us to go out there and be fruitful, multiply, fill the Earth, subdue it, and have dominion over everything. Friends, the reason the country is struggling because the Christians in America have failed to take authority and now is the time to choose, now is the time to stand."