Nelda Speaks
Nelda Gean Speaks is a retired county official in Mountain Home, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for a part of Baxter County in the northern portion of her state.
Speaks's place of birth, names of parents, former places of residence, educational institutions, and other pertinent information are missing. She is a former treasurer of Baxter County and a justice of the peace. She and her husband, Benny Harold Speaks, have one daughter. She is active in the Baxter County Republican organization and is the first vice president of the Arkansas Republican Party. She is a member of the National Rifle Association. Speaks lists her religious affiliation as Baptist.
Speaks ran without opposition in the Republican primary held on May 20, 2014. The House seat was vacated by the term-limited Karen Hopper, a university administrator in Mountain Home. In the November 4 general election, she handily defeated Democrat Willa Mae Sutterfield Tilley 6,550 to 3,850, in a heavily Republican year statewide.
Representative Speaks holds these committee assignments: City, County and Local Affairs and Revenue and Taxation. In February 2015, Speaks 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.
That same month, she supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion. After critics questioned the constitutionality of the measure, it was revised and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Governor Asa Hutchinson.
