Meet Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews Biography

Jim F. Andrews, Jr. (“Jim”) was born in El Dorado, Arkansas and is the sixth generation of his family to live and work in Union County. He grew up in nearby Smackover, Arkansas where he was active in school activities, church, and Boy Scouts. He was instilled with traditional small town values of a strong work ethic (farm and oilfield work) and his core values (faith, family, and friends).

After graduating from Smackover High School, Jim attended Southern Arkansas University (SAU) in Magnolia, Arkansas. Inspired by the worldwide success of an El Dorado-based company (Murphy Oil Corp.), he studied business and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (BBA). While attending SAU, Jim developed his interest in leadership and free enterprise. He was active in the Phi Beta Lambda business fraternity, SAU student government, SAU Residence Hall Association, and named to Who’s Who and the Dean’s List.

Thereafter, Jim began a career in sales and marketing by working in small and mid-sized Arkansas businesses. After acquiring four years of “street” education, Jim continued his business education at Baylor University, graduating with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA). Next, he continued his sales and marketing career with FMC Corporation (FMC), a global manufacturing conglomerate and Fortune 500 company. He also answered a call to serve our country by commissioning as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. It was during this time that Jim became initiated to working in boardrooms and in war rooms, wherever in the world they may be. His overseas duty stations included the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier as well as Pearl Harbor, Bahrain, Australia, South Korea, Japan, England, and Spain.

While working full time for FMC and part-time in the Navy Reserve, Jim began his study of law at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. After graduation with a juris doctor (JD) degree in 2000 and licensing as a Texas attorney, Jim realized how greatly he missed the people, places, and piney woods of his ancestral home in south Arkansas. Fortuitously, he returned home, licensed as an Arkansas attorney, and gained employment as a corporate attorney at Deltic Timber Corporation (Deltic), a former subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corp.

At Deltic, Jim’s corporate legal practice entailed, among other activities, litigation oversight, transactions, legal compliance, and corporate governance. Along the way, he promoted to Vice President of Law, Land and Safety as well as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In 2018, he was part of an executive team that negotiated a $3 billion merger with Potlatch Corporation – forming one of the country’s largest wood products companies, PotlatchDeltic Corporation.

After Deltic, Jim accepted an appointment from Governor Asa Hutchinson to the Arkansas Economic Development Council. Later, he served in the state’s employ as General Counsel of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism (ADPHT) in Little Rock. While at ADPHT, Jim successfully negotiated the settlement of an environmental dispute at the Buffalo National River; negotiated a lease of Camp Ouachita/Lake Sylvia for the State Parks system, and was an architect of a $40 million business grant program for Arkansas businesses hurt during the COVID 19 pandemic.

In January 2023, Jim accepted an appointment from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a Circuit Court Judge in the 13th Judicial District. Throughout 2023 and 2024, he presided over criminal, civil, and probate matters in and Calhoun, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Ouachita, and Union counties. He also graduated from several programs at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. After leaving the Circuit Court at the end of his term in January 2025, Jim has remained active in the court system by serving as a Special Justice in multiple cases at the Arkansas Supreme Court and by serving on the Supreme Court’s Committee on Professional Conduct.

Jim’s community service has previously included board service to the Center for Arkansas Legal Services, Southern Arkansas University Foundation, Southern Arkansas University Alumni Association, and the DeSoto Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. His current board service includes the Arkansas State Police Foundation, Economics Arkansas, the Southern Arkansas University College of Business Advisory Council, the Union County Arkansas Industrial Board, and the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society.

With encouragement from his faith, family, and friends, Jim now seeks the Republican nomination for State Representative from Arkansas House District 97 (El Dorado and western Union County), his ancestral home. He is fully supported by his loving wife, Amanda Heath Andrews, and their four children James Andrews, III, Sierra Hill, Fisher Hill, and Lauren Andrews. Their family proudly calls Immanuel Baptist Church of El Dorado, Arkansas their church home and they enjoy a variety of outdoor activities in their spare time.