Hickey obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Texarkana, Texas, campus of Texas A&M University–Commerce, then known as East Texas State University. He owns three companies, GBU Operations, Inc., Oak Creek Investment Properties, Inc., and XB Construction. He is a former vice-president of Commercial National Bank of Texarkana, an institution in both Texas and Arkansas with which he was affiliated for twenty-five years. Hickey and his wife, the former Denise Lynn Love, have one son, Sawyer Hickey. He is a member of the Trinity Baptist Church in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Political life
From 2004 to 2010, Hickey served for two terms on the school board in Texarkana, Arkansas, and for a time was the board vice-president and the president. He was elected to the Senate from the revised District 11 in 2012 when he narrowly unseated the Democrat Steve Harrelson, 14,510 to 13,148, formerly the senator for District 21. The previous District 11 senator, the Democratic attorney Robert F. Thompson of Paragould in Greene County in northeastern Arkansas, instead ran successfully in the revised District 20. Hickey's Senate term expires at the end of 2016. Hickey serves on these Senate committees: Legislative Joint Auditing, Performance Review, State Agencies and Governmental Affairs, and Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs. He is a member of the Southern Legislative Conference, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the conservativeAmerican Legislative Exchange Council. Hickey opposes abortion. He voted to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation or when a fetal heartbeat is detected. He voted to allow university staff to carry concealed weapons. In 2013, Hickey joined the Senate majority to amend state income tax rates and to reduce the amount of weekly unemployment compensation benefits. He also voted to test the recipients of unemployment compensation for illegal use of narcotics. He voted successfully to override Governor Mike Beebe's veto of a bill to require photo identification in order to vote. He voted to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He voted to allow handguns to be carried on church properties and sponsored a bill to forbid the release of information on the holders of concealed carry permits. He did not vote on the issue of permitting the sale of unpasteurizedwhole milk within his state.
