Robin Lundstrum

Robin Dale Hall Lundstrum (born c. 1962)^[1] is a property manager for an investment company in Springdale, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 87 in a portion of Benton and Washington counties in the northwestern portion of her state.^[2]

Background

Lundstrum is the daughter of Oscar Maxey "Max" Hall, also known as "Red" Hall (1936-2000), a native of the capital city of Little Rock and a 35-year resident of northwestern Arkansas. A civil engineer, land surveyor, and real estate broker, he was instrumental in the development of the Springdale Municipal Airport. As a helicopter pilot for the United States Army in the Vietnam War, Hall nicknamed his 120th Aviation Company "The Razorbacks" after his alma mater, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in Washington County. He completed 540 combat hours and 812 missions. His ships faced ground fire twenty-five times but lost no crew members. Hall earned twenty-two air medals. He served in the Gulf War as a chief warrant officer with the 374th Army Reserve Medical Detachment from Little Rock. At the age of fifty-four, he was the oldest helicopter pilot trainer in the Persian Gulf. He died at the age of sixty-four of a cancer attributed to the long-term effects of exposure to Agent Orange in South Vietnam. He is interred at Elm Springs Cemetery in Washington County.^[3]

Lundstrum's mother, Margie Lyn Honeycutt Hall (born c. 1937) of Springdale, is a retired nurse. A nursing scholarship at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is named for Margie Hall. Lundstrum has a younger sister, Toni Maxine Hall Crowder of Fredericksburg, Virginia.^[3][4]

Lundstrum received three degrees, two in professional education and a doctorate in health science, from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. From 1989 to 1998, she was a faculty member at the private John Brown University in Siloam Springs in Benton County. Since 1993, she has been the president of Cypress Investments in Springdale.^[5]

Lundstrum is a Southern Baptist and attends The Cross Church in Springdale, formerly known as the First Baptist Church of Springdale; her pastor is Ronnie Floyd, the 2014 president of the Southern Baptist Convention. She and her husband, Thomas Duane Lundstrum (born c. 1963), a businessman, have two children, Mary Grace and Thomas David Lundstrum. She is a member of Rotary International and the Chamber of Commerce in both Springdale and Siloam Springs.^[5] She has formerly resided in Fayetteville as well as Rogers and Bella Vista in Benton County.^[1]

Political life

Lundstrum has been active in many Republican campaigns in northwestern Arkansas, including those for George W. Bush for U.S. President in 2000 and 2004, the late Winthrop Paul Rockefeller for lieutenant governor in 2002, and the late Fay Boozman and his brother, John Boozman, for the United States Senate in 1998 and 2010, respectively. She is former vice president of the Washington County Republican Women and a second vice-chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party. She is a member of Phyllis Schlafly's conservative Eagle Forum.^[5]

A former member of the city council in Elm Springs,^[5] Lundstrum in 2014 sought the District 87 seat in the Arkansas House vacated by the term-limited Republican Jonathan Barnett. In the May 20 primary, she defeated Lucas Spencer Roebuck (born c. 1964) of Siloam Springs, an employee of John Brown University, by 412 votes: 1,588 (57.5 percent) to 1,176 (42.5 percent), to gain the Republican nomination. She was then unopposed in the November 4 general election.^[6]

Representative Lundstrum is assigned to the House committees on: (1) Energy (joint), (2) Insurance and Commerce, and (3) Public Health, Welfare, and Labor.^[2] In February 2015, Lundstrum joined dozens of her fellow Republicans and two Democrats in co-sponsoring legislation submitted by Representative Lane Jean of Magnolia, to reduce unemployment compensation benefits. The measure was promptly signed into law by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.^[7]

That same month Lundstrum supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Republican Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion.^[8] The measure passed the House, seventy-two to twenty.^[9] One of the opponents, Democratic Representative Camille Bennett, a former city attorney for Lonoke, Arkansas, called for a reworking of the legislation.^[10] Bennett claimed the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature.^[11] The measure was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Governor Hutchinson.^[12]

References