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Bruce Westerman

U.S. House · AR-4 · Republicans · since 2025

also

Candidate for U.S. House · AR-4

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Biography

Overview

Bruce Westerman is a Republican U.S. Representative from Arkansas's 4th congressional district, serving since 2014. He is a certified forester with a background in engineering and forestry, holding degrees from the University of Arkansas and Yale University. Before joining Congress, he served as majority leader of the Arkansas House of Representatives—the first Republican to hold that position since Reconstruction.

Career

Westerman's major legislative focus has been forest management. He introduced the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017, which passed the House but failed in the Senate, and more recently the Fix Our Forests Act in 2025 to address wildfire risk. He also introduced the Trillion Trees Act in 2021, though this was criticized by environmental groups. He voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and voted to certify the 2020 Electoral College results.

Prior political experience

Westerman was first elected to Congress in 2014, winning the Republican primary against Tommy Moll with 54% of the vote, then defeating Democratic nominee James Lee Witt in the general election 54%-43%. He succeeded Tom Cotton, who was elected to the U.S. Senate that year.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal
Conservative
119th Congress+0.543

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1
+1
+0.260
Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 345 scored votes

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Officeholding history

TermSeatTerm datesTerminationPredecessorSuccessor
6thU.S. House AR-42025–presentIn progressBruce Westerman—
5thU.S. House AR-42023–2025Term endedBruce WestermanBruce Westerman
4thU.S. House AR-42021–2023Term endedBruce WestermanBruce Westerman
3rdU.S. House AR-42019–2021Term endedBruce WestermanBruce Westerman
2ndU.S. House AR-42017–2019Term endedBruce WestermanBruce Westerman
1stU.S. House AR-42015–2017Term endedTom CottonBruce Westerman

Committee assignments

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term5

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

YearSeatResultVote shareField
2024U.S. House AR-4Pending72.91%