Joyce Ann Elliott (born March 20, 1951) is an American politician from the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. From 2009 to 2022, she was a member of the

Arkansas Senate The Arkansas State Senate is the upper branch of the Arkansas General Assembly. The Senate consists of 35 members, each representing a district with about 83,000 people. Service in the state legislature is part-time, and many state senators have ...

representing the 31st district, which consisted of portions of

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

and Pulaski County. She was previously a member of the

Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...

, serving from 2001 to 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Elliott was the Democratic nominee in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

elections for

Arkansas's 2nd congressional district Arkansas's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district located in the central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas and includes most of the state capital of Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock, its suburbs, and surrounding areas. The dist ...

, losing the former election to Republican

Tim Griffin John Timothy Griffin (born August 21, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas, attorney general of Arkansas. He served as the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, lieutenant governor of Arkans ...

, and the latter to incumbent Republican French Hill. If elected, she would have been the only African American to ever represent Arkansas in Congress.

Early life, education, and career

Joyce Ann Elliott was born on March 20, 1951, in Willisville, Arkansas. Elliott was the second person of color to graduate from her recently integrated high school; the first was her older sister. Elliott attended

Southern Arkansas University Southern Arkansas University (SAU) is a public university in Magnolia, Arkansas, United States. The university had an enrollment of 5,100 undergraduate and graduate students as of fall 2023. History Southern Arkansas University was established ...

where she earned a B.A. in English and speech. She attended

Ouachita Baptist University Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) is a Private university, private Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Baptist university in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The university's name is taken from the Ouachita River, Ouachita (pronounced WAH-shi-tah) River, ...

where she earned an M.A. in English. Elliott taught at Joe T. Robinson High School from 1989 to 2003.

State legislature

Elliott served in the

from 2000 to 2006. In 2008, she was elected to the Arkansas State Senate, where she represented the 31st district. Elliott began working on hate crime legislation in 2001 during her first term in office. Arkansas is one of three states without a statute criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation. In 2020, she was the chair of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus. In 2020 she was endorsed by

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

Elections

2000 election

2010 election

Elliott ran against Republican nominee Timothy Griffin for the seat of retiring Democratic incumbent Vic Snyder who retired. In the general election, Elliott lost to Griffin.

2020 election

Elliott announced her candidacy for the U.S. House in Arkansas's 2nd congressional district on November 12, 2019, against Republican incumbent French Hill.

References

External links

Senator Joyce Elliott (D)
''official Arkansas Senate website''
Joyce Elliott for Congress
''official campaign site'' * , - , - , - 1951 births 21st-century American women politicians African-American state legislators in Arkansas Democratic Party Arkansas state senators Living people Ouachita Baptist University alumni People from Nevada County, Arkansas Southern Arkansas University alumni Candidates in the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections Women state legislators in Arkansas 21st-century African-American women politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the Arkansas General Assembly {{Arkansas-politician-stub