FIRST STEPS IN THE HALLS OF POWER: Radio to Rotunda RJ HAWK

By John Callahan

The first thing you’re told coming into the Arkansas General Assembly is that it’s like drinking out of a fire hose, State Rep. RJ Hawk explained. Except in his words, it’s more like “putting your mouth up against a fire hydrant and turning it on.”

Hawk was recently sworn in for his first term representing Arkansas’s 81st District which covers Bryant, parts of Benton, Shannon Hills and Alexander. Previously, Hawk spent most of his career in sports media with 103.7 The Buzz. More recently, he entered the world of real estate with Clark & Co. Realty and served two terms as a Bryant city councilman. Though these careers could not have fully prepared him for the Arkansas House of Representatives, his experience in working with and helping those around him has given him a strong foundation to build upon.

Originally from Athens, Texas, Hawk first came to Arkansas in 2004 to play baseball at the University of Central Arkansas. A serious knee injury ended his sports career early, and he considered leaving college to become a police officer. His mother convinced him to stick it out, however, and he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications and a degree in marketing. He was the first person in his family to graduate from college, though his mother completed a degree of her own just a week later.

Diploma in hand, Hawk immediately set out to find a job in sports media. Unfortunately, the year was 2008, and the Great Recession meant pickings were slim in just about every industry.

“Nobody was hiring,” Hawk said. “I had gone to school to be on either radio or TV. That was my thing, but I couldn’t find anything. I was applying for jobs in Butte, Montana, and I just couldn’t get anything.”

During his time at UCA, Hawk had done an internship working at 103.7 The Buzz. After about six months of job hunting, The Buzz contacted him with an offer for a full-time position as producer of a weekend show with Bill Vickery. Hawk jumped at the chance and a long career in sports media was born.

In his work at The Buzz, Hawk may have been best known as a co-host on Morning Mayhem, which Hawk described as “coffee shop talk” about sports and a wide array of other topics. He has also frequently done live commentary and sideline reporting for games ranging from the Dallas Cowboys to NCAA tournaments to Arkansas high schools. His love for being at the games in person was matched only by his love for working with the people he met there.

“That, to me, is the most fun thing about my job: being able to interact with people you see on TV,” Hawk said. “One guy that I became friends with was an idol of mine, Brad Sham, the voice of the Dallas Cowboys. Things like that are the things that I’m going to remember the most about sports radio.”

He recalled a game on Thanksgiving Day 2010 between the Cowboys and the Saints.

“I’ll never forget – right before the game started, Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, came into the press box,” Hawk said. “And he treated the entire media to Thanksgiving dinner because they were covering the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. And so I got my plate and I sat down by myself. Brad Sham, Jerry Jones and his son Stephen Jones all sat down at the table with me.

“They just grabbed a seat, and I sat there and didn’t know what to say. Finally I said, ‘Hello, Mr. Jones, I’m RJ Hawk. I work for a sports radio show in Little Rock.’ And because he’s from Arkansas, he immediately brightened up, and we sat there for 30 minutes and just talked.”

Joining the world of politics was not something that had occurred to Hawk until the world of politics came to him. Though one of his shows with Vickery, The Sunday Buzz, mixed sports with politics, it had always been the sports that interested him.

That changed in 2017 when Hawk was approached by members of the Bryant community who asked him to run for the Bryant City Council. He had no idea what being a councilman ,thought he would hate the job if he took it. The only one who supported the idea was Shane Broadway, a former Democrat state legislator who had served as Speaker of the House and as a senator. Broadway thought Hawk would do a great job in the position, and Hawk decided to follow his advice. He ran for the city council in 2018 and took up the posi tion in 2019.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Hawk said. “I served four years on the Bryant City Council, and I enjoyed it when somebody called me and said, ‘Hey, I’m having a hard time getting through to the water department. Can you help me out?’ And I literally picked up the phone, called the director, got them connected and got their problem solved. I love solving problems, and I love fixing things.”

Not too long after joining the political scene, Hawk also took his first steps into real estate. Since 2011, Hawk has run a small business called Hawk Media Solutions, which specializes in drone photography for real estate professionals. One of his frequent clients, Jesse Clark of Clark & Co. Realty, believed Hawk would by great in real estate and repeatedly tried to get him into the business.

Hawk had long had an interest in the industry, something he attributed to his mother, who he said “could sell rain to a cloud.” She had been the No. 1 jeweler in the state of Texas but left the business after Hawk was born. She was his idol, so the idea of being a salesman intrigued him, yet he refused Clark’s offers, unsure of what the job would require.

When Hawk decided to sell his house in 2019, however, Clark convinced him to simply watch as he handled every aspect of the transaction. In watching Clark, Hawk realized that the real estate business was primarily a job of communication and chose to give it a shot.

“My first full year of doing it, I sold $8 million in real estate,” Hawk said. “My second year, I was one of the top 30 real estate agents in Saline County. It’s really kind of grown into a passion of mine. I love it because, once again, if you look back at everything that I’ve done, whether it be city council or real estate, it’s about helping people.”

When Rep. Andy Davis chose not to run again in 2021, the seat for District 31 was left open. Hawk once again went to Broadway for advice, and his mentor told him, based on the good work he’d done for Bryant, that he should move up to the state level.

As an open seat, Hawk hoped he would be able to more or less walk into the position. Instead, he found a challenger: Keith Brooks.

“A lot of times in politics, voters only see the bad out of people; they only see the negative things you’re putting out,” Hawk said. “This person did this or this person did that, and you nev- er hear the good things. Keith and I did not say one bad thing about each other the entire race. In fact, he and I both agreed and announced that you do your thing, I’ll do mine, and may the best man win.”

The race was decided by the incredibly narrow margin of only 27 votes, which was reduced to 21 by a recount, in favor of Brooks. Before the final tally, then-Governor Asa Hutchinson even called Hawk and congratulated him on his victory. Yet the defeat left no hard feelings.

“After the recount was over with,” Hawk said, “Keith called me and said, ‘Hey, RJ, would you mind coming to my office and telling me what you would have done if you had gotten the job?’ We sat for three hours at his office and just ate pizza and talked. And to this day, he and I have become great friends.”

Through Brooks, Hawk got his first look behind the curtain of the House of Representatives. As a new face himself, Brooks gave Hawk the play-by-by of what he encountered as a first-time representative, helping Hawk to prepare in case another chance ever came along.

Lo and behold, redistricting due to the growth of Saline County led to the creation of District 81, which allowed Brooks to remain representative of District 31 while providing an opening for Hawk. In 2022, Hawk campaigned as a Republican with a platform of limiting government, reducing taxes and supporting the police. He was successful, winning the primaries with 55 percent of the vote and the general election with 61 of ballots cast.

Having won his race, Hawk announced in late December he would be leaving his long-held post at 103.7 The Buzz. Despite this, he still plans to join Morning Mayhem as a guest host when asked, and he will continue to be involved in The Buzz’s high school sports coverage. Likewise, real estate will remain his day job, as being a representative is intended as a part-time position.

Today, Rep. Hawk sits next to Rep. Brooks in the House as the 94th General Assembly gets into full swing. Hawk has already sponsored and passed multiple bills, one of which has been signed into law: HB1335, which amends laws regarding the election or appointment of city attorneys. Other bills he has sponsored include HB1435, which regards the repayment calculation for sales tax, and HB 1519, which would prohibit municipalities from banning breed-specific animals.

“I really appreciate how hard RJ has worked since being elected to jump in and learn as much as is possible about the position of State Representative,” Brooks said. “The people of Bryant and Saline County should know that he is an integral part of our delegation and does an outstanding job of representing them at the capitol.”

“The other thing I really want to work on is police retirement,” Hawk said. “I’d like to see the time for police retirement come down to 25 or 26 years. Right now, it’s at 28. It’s an incentive thing because, right now, nobody wants to be a police officer anymore. But the other thing is, if they’re out there protecting us, we ought to at least try to get them something that improves their quality of life.”

Hawk’s other goals include reducing taxes following last year’s $1.6 billion surplus, led by cutting corporate taxes for small businesses.

“Arkansas was built on small business,” Hawk said, “and so helping those folks out a lot is something that we’ll work towards.”

Another significant issue Hawk campaigned on was improving education, and he looks forward to seeing Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan for education, which has not yet been presented to the legislature in its entirety.

“I’d love to see our education system be one of the tops in the country,” Hawk said. “Right now, if you look at K-12 it’s not very good. But along with that, I would love to see our vocationaltechnical schools get more support, because not everybody’s cut out to be in college. Some people want to go and work with their hands, whether it be plumbers, electricians, people like that. I’d love to see us give more money to that and get people ready for the workforce.

Hawk’s vision for Arkansas is a state where the government stays out of people’s lives, individual liberties are upheld, and a combination of top-of-the-line education and a business-friendly environment make Arkansas the place to be for businesses from around the nation. Though it is early in his term, he’s eager to get to work bringing the state closer to that vision.

“This is a learning experience for us all,” Hawk said. “There’s not a playbook on how to be a legislator, and everybody expects you to know everything immediately. You want to, but it’s just not feasible sometimes. And so it’s going to be a learning curve, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

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