Mike Beebe

Mickey Dale Beebe (born December 28, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 45th governor of Arkansas from 2007 to 2015.

He remains the last member of the Democratic Party to serve as Governor of Arkansas.

Born in Amagon, Arkansas, Beebe is a graduate of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

They returned to Newport, Arkansas, where Beebe graduated from high school at the age of seventeen in 1964.

Beebe received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Arkansas State University in 1968, where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.

Beebe served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974.

He earned his juris doctor from the University of Arkansas in 1972.

Beebe entered private practice as an attorney before being elected to the Arkansas Senate in 1982.

After the incumbent senator from his newly redrawn district unexpectedly dropped out of the race, Beebe was left without a primary or general election opponent and was elected to the Arkansas State Senate in 1982, where he would serve for 20 years.

He never faced an opponent in his twenty-year Senate career in which he became known as one of the most effective legislators based on his pragmatic deal-making ability.

During his last session in the state senate, Beebe was elected president pro tempore of the body.

Beebe served five terms in the Arkansas Senate from 1983 to 2003 and served as President of the Senate during his last term.

Beebe was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 2002, where he served one term from 2003 to 2007.

In 2002, he was elected Arkansas Attorney General, a position he held for the four years prior to his election as governor.

On June 14, 2005, Beebe announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination to run for Governor of Arkansas.

A member of the Democratic Party, Beebe ran for the governorship in 2006, winning in an uncontested Democratic primary and defeating former U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson in the general election with 56% of the vote.

Beebe defeated former Republican Congressman and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Asa Hutchinson as well as the Green Party candidate and independent candidate Rod Bryan in the general election on November 7, 2006, capturing 55 percent of the vote.

Beebe was sworn in as governor on January 9, 2007.

He was elected to the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee for 2008–2009.

Beebe was challenged by Republican nominee Jim Keet, a former state legislator from Little Rock.

Beebe defeated Keet 64% to 34%

In his official website, Beebe outlines some of the policies he has pursued during his first term.

He has outlined a plan for a balanced budget and attempted to cut middle class taxes by slashing in half the percentage of the state's grocery tax and increasing the Homestead Property Tax Credit, which can provide for the lowering of property taxes.

Beebe has focused heavily on education reform.

He has called for an additional $19 million per year to be spent on assisting special needs students and has designed a program that attempts to increase the quality of teachers within Arkansas by providing alternative pay and mentoring to motivate bright students to enter education or young teachers to work in struggling rural schools.

Beebe has rejected calls to allow for Social Security private accounts to be established.

He has also made plans to phase out the tax on utilities for manufacturers.

He outlined a 12-point plan to make health care more accessible and affordable.

Some of his proposals include using federal tax credits to make private insurance cheaper, expanding Medicaid, increasing use of preventive care to stop health concerns before they grow worse, expanding school health clinics, and using home and community-based care as an alternative to nursing homes.

Beebe was elected to a second term in 2010, defeating former State Senator Jim Keet with 64% of the vote in contrast to fellow Democrat Blanche Lincoln who lost her second U.S. Senate re-election bid in a 58–37 landslide.

In January 2011, he said that he supported a tax increase for highway funding saying "If they pass a tax increase for highways and it was reasonable, I'd sign it. I don't think it's going to happen."

In January 2012, he proposed a $163 million funding increase in a $4.7 billion state budget.

He called for $117 million increase in the Human Services Department and a $56 million increase in public schools.

Beebe, who was restricted from running in the 2014 election due to term limits, left office on January 13, 2015.

As of 2024, Beebe is the very last Democrat to both serve as Governor of Arkansas and win a statewide election there to date.

Beebe currently serves on the Governors’ Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and has endorsed Medicaid work requirements since leaving office.

Beebe was born in Amagon, a small town in Jackson County, Arkansas.

He was raised by his mother, a waitress, and never met his father.

As a child, he moved often with his family.

They lived in Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, Houston and Alamogordo, New Mexico.