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James Sturch

Republican Party

Prior offices:

Arkansas State Senate District 19

Years in office: 2019 - 2023

Predecessor:Linda Collins-Smith (R)

Successor:Dave Wallace (R)

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Arkansas House of Representatives District 63

Years in office: 2015 - 2019

Successor:Stu Smith (R)

Elections and appointments

Last election

June 21, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

University of Arkansas

Personal

Profession

Teacher

Contact

Campaign website

Personal Facebook

James Sturch (Republican Party) was a member of theArkansas State Senate, representingDistrict 19. He assumed office on January 14, 2019. He left office on January 9, 2023.

Sturch (Republican Party) ran for re-election to theArkansas State Senate to representDistrict 22. He lost in the Republican primary runoff onJune 21, 2022.

Sturch is a formerRepublican member of theArkansas House of Representatives, representingDistrict 63 from 2015 to 2019.

Biography

Sturch graduated from the University of Arkansas with bachelor's degrees in political science and secondary education. His professional experience includes working as a high school social studies teacher.^[1]

Committee assignments

2021-2022

Sturch was assigned to the following committees:

• Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee
• Senate Education Committee
• Senate Rules, Resolutions and Memorials Committee,Vice-chair
• Girls State Committee
• Legislative Joint Auditing Committee

2019-2020

Sturch was assigned to the following committees:

• Academic Facilities Oversight Committee
• Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee
• Senate Education Committee

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Sturch served on the following committees:

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according toBillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2022

See also: Arkansas State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Arkansas State Senate District 22

John Payton won election in the general election for Arkansas State Senate District 22 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Payton (R)	100.0	24,186

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	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,186
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary runoff election

Republican primary runoff for Arkansas State Senate District 22

John Payton defeated incumbentJames Sturch in the Republican primary runoff for Arkansas State Senate District 22 on June 21, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Payton	58.6	3,733
		James Sturch	41.4	2,633

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 6,366
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 22

John Payton and incumbentJames Sturch advanced to a runoff. They defeatedEthan J. Barnes in the Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 22 on May 24, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Payton	41.3	6,281
✔		James Sturch	35.2	5,353
		Ethan J. Barnes	23.5	3,571

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 15,205
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ronald Laslo (R)

2018

See also:Arkansas State Senate elections, 2018

General election

General election for Arkansas State Senate District 19

James Sturch defeatedSusi Epperson in the general election for Arkansas State Senate District 19 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		James Sturch (R)	72.9	18,563
		Susi Epperson (D)	27.1	6,914

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	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 25,477 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arkansas State Senate District 19

Susi Epperson advanced from the Democratic primary for Arkansas State Senate District 19 on May 22, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Susi Epperson

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified.
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 19

James Sturch defeated incumbentLinda Collins-Smith in the Republican primary for Arkansas State Senate District 19 on May 22, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		James Sturch	52.9	5,309
		Linda Collins-Smith	47.1	4,735

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 10,044
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

2016

See also:Arkansas House of Representatives elections, 2016

Ballotpedia's analysis revealed that only 42 of the 100 seats up for election in 2016 involved competition between Democrats and Republicans. This made it numerically impossible for Democrats to take control of either Arkansas legislative chamber in 2016.

The reason for thelow competition was that candidates were in safe districts for their parties.Between 1972 and 2014, an upward trend in uncontested state legislative elections occurred.

TheDemocratic Party of Arkansas focused its 2016 efforts on the state’s House of Representatives. Without the numbers to win thestate Senate, H.L. Moody, communications director for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, told Ballotpedia that the party’s goal was to “start building back where we can,” beginning with the House.

Ballotpedia spoke to political analystRichard Winger, who said that the early primary deadline for the 2016 elections was a possible factor as well, making it difficult for Democrats to recruit candidates early.

The primary election was held on March 1, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing period began at noon local time on November 2, 2015, and ended at noon local time on November 9, 2015.^[2]

IncumbentJames Sturch ran unopposed in the Arkansas House of Representatives District 63 general election.^[3]

Arkansas House of Representatives, District 63 General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Republican	James SturchIncumbent (unopposed)
Source:Arkansas Secretary of State

IncumbentJames Sturch defeatedPhillip Finch in the Arkansas House of Representatives District 63 Republican Primary.^[4][5]

Arkansas House of Representatives, District 63 Republican Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	James SturchIncumbent	70.16%	3,439
	Republican	Phillip Finch	29.84%	1,463
Total Votes				4,902

2014

See also:Arkansas House of Representatives elections, 2014

Elections for theArkansas House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on May 20, 2014; a runoff election took place where necessary on June 10, 2014. The general election was held onNovember 4, 2014. Thesignature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 3, 2014.Lackey Moody was unopposed in the Democratic primary.James Sturch defeatedAnne Moore in the Republican primary. Moody was defeated by Sturch in the general election.^[6][7]

Arkansas House of Representatives, District 63 General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	James Sturch	61.2%	5,343
	Democratic	Lackey Moody	38.8%	3,386
Total Votes				8,729

Arkansas House of Representatives, District 63 Republican Primary, 2014

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
James Sturch	61.9%	1,050
Anne Moore	38.1%	646
Total Votes		1,696

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also:Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

James Sturch did not completeBallotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2016

Sturch's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Scorecards

See also:State legislative scorecards andState legislative scorecards in Arkansas

Ascorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Arkansas scorecards, email suggestions toeditor@ballotpedia.org.

2022

In 2022, theArkansas State Legislature was in session from February 14 to March 15.

• National Federation of Independent Business

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to small business issues.

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

See also

2022 Elections

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External links

Footnotes

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