Mark Pryor

This article is about the United States Senator. For other uses, see Mark Pryor (disambiguation).

Mark Pryor
Official portrait, 2011
United States Senator
from Arkansas
In office
January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2015
Preceded byTim Hutchinson
Succeeded byTom Cotton
53rd Attorney General of Arkansas
In office
January 12, 1999 – January 3, 2003
GovernorMike Huckabee
Preceded byWinston Bryant
Succeeded byMike Beebe
Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
In office
January 14, 1991 – January 9, 1995
Preceded byGloria Cabe
Succeeded byLisa Ferrell
Constituency59th district (1991–1993)
57th district (1993–1995)
Personal details
Born
Mark Lunsford Pryor

(1963-01-10) January 10, 1963 (age 61)[1]
Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseJoi Pryor
Children2
Parent
EducationUniversity of Arkansas (BA, JD)
Signature
WebsiteSenate website
Mark Pryor's voice
Mark Pryor testifies on toy safety at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing
Recorded September 12, 2007

Mark Lunsford Pryor (born January 10, 1963) is an American attorney, politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 2003 to 2015. He previously served as Attorney General of Arkansas from 1999 to 2003 and in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1991 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party.[2]

Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Pryor is the son of former Arkansas Governor and U.S. Senator David Pryor. He received his bachelor's degree University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and his J.D. degree from its law school. He worked in private practice for several years until being elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1990. He was elected the state attorney general in 1998. Pryor announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2001, running for the same Senate seat his father had held from 1979 to 1997. He was elected with 54% of the vote, defeating Republican incumbent Tim Hutchinson.

He was reelected with no Republican opposition in 2008. During the 112th Congress he served as the chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance. Pryor ran for reelection in 2014, but was defeated by Republican Tom Cotton.[3] In 2020, Pryor was hired as a lobbyist by Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.[4][5] He is the most recent Democrat to serve in the U.S. Senate from Arkansas.

  1. ^
  2. ^ "Mark L Pryor from North Little Rock, Arkansas | VoterRecords.com". voterrecords.com. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  3. ^ Ostermeier, Eric (November 4, 2014). "Mark Pryor Loss Makes US Senate History". Smart Politics.
  4. ^ Brantley, Max (November 2, 2020). "Mark Pryor changes lobbying teams". Arkansas Times.
  5. ^ "Pryor, Mark L - Employment History". OpenSecrets. Retrieved October 7, 2021.