LITTLE ROCK — With a confident stride, L.J. Bryant sauntered to the reception area of his Little Rock office. A red tie, neatly knotted at the collar of his blue shirt, hung perfectly straight.
The 23-year-old Hendrix College graduate and Newport resident said he is the youngest to have an elected nomination for any statewide office in Arkansas.
Bryant, a Democrat, gave it all he had in his race for land commissioner and narrowly lost to Republican John Thurston.
Bryant doesn’t see his age as a hindrance to public service.
“I always talked about the importance of young people running for office,” Bryant said. “Folks looked at our ideas and what we had to offer and not age.”
After Bryant’s father, Larry, was killed in a work-related accident at a steel mill in Blytheville, Bryant said he realized the brevity of life. At the age of 11, Bryant, an only child, stood up to become the “man of the house” after his father’s death.
“It made me grow up at an early age,” Bryant said.
His mother and business partner, Cheri Bryant, agreed, her smile proving how proud she is of her son.
“He had to grow up fast when we lost his dad, and he stood right by my side when Larry died,” Cheri Bryant said. “A lot of kids could go wrong in a case like that, but he was always a man about it.”
Before his father’s death, Bryant was diagnosed with benign rolandic epilepsy.
“Essentially, I outgrew it,” Bryant said. “Likely it was caused from carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas heater. It is really said to have no known cause or no known cure. For me, I had seizures for maybe 1 1/2 years, and since then have had no problems. Knock on wood. I feel like I am the healthiest person in the world.”
His mother told him at that time that he could choose to be “handicapped or handicapable.” And he chose to be handicapable.
Growing up in the small Jackson County town of Grubbs, Bryant said he has always been interested in public service and became active in his church. Interning for the state Democratic Party in 2002, Bryant said he saw how politics and nonprofits could benefit each other.
“Government can partner with nonprofits and do good,” he said.
Graduating from Hendrix with a degree in political science in 2008, Bryant said he realized there is no science to politics.
Bryant is very active in his community as the lay leader of the First United Methodist Church of Newport, a regional board member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Jackson County and a member of the Depot Days Committee and Kiwanis. Along with Connie Waters Boyster, Bryant co-wrote the grant for Jackson County’s Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Bryant joined his mother in running their three Jackson Hewitt Tax Service locations in Jonesboro, and he said he will go back to business as usual after he closes his campaign headquarters and ties up loose ends of the campaign.
“Having him do all the marketing and payroll, he is really a blessing, and we will be glad to get him back,” Cheri said about her son.
Working with clients at the tax service locations, Bryant said he saw them dealing with tax-delinquent properties and real-estate liens and believed he had some ideas to make things at the Land Commissioner’s Office run smoother and to keep taxes lower for the people of Arkansas.
“We got into the race on March 8 — we didn’t have a dime — and the Realtors Association endorsed us,” Bryant said. “The public is willing to have us young folk if we have good ideas and something to offer. We need people of all walks of life in public service.”
His advice to young people considering a run for public office is to “put themselves out there, but make sure they’re mentally prepared. There are joys and challenges that affect family and friends.”
Although Bryant didn’t win this race, it hasn’t discouraged him that things don’t always work out the way he wants.
While running his campaign, he never asked anyone to do something he wasn’t willing to do, and he said that is also the way he runs his businesses.
“I knew if I’ve asked someone else to do it, I have to be willing to do it — even taking out the trash,” Bryant said.
“We have humbled our public servants by sending a message to Washington,” Bryant said about the election outcome.
Bryant’s campaign manager, Brady Schuckman of Little Rock, said he is proud of the positive campaign they ran.
“I can tell him what to do, but in the end, he’s the candidate, and he has to do it,” Schuckman said about managing the campaign. “He was the candidate of ideas, and a lot of times a candidate can lose control and let other people influence them, but [Bryant] wanted to make sure he kept those roots in Newport.”
Bryant wouldn’t comment on his plans to run for another public office, but he didn’t deny that he would consider it, either. However, he does have plans to catch up on some goals that were put on hold during his campaign.
“Once I catch up on campaign debt, flying lessons are on my list,” Bryant said.