Photo by Bryan Clifton
Arkansas is full of “dynamic duos,” those couples and partners in business who’ve made lasting impacts on their communities. And they come in many different flavors, from community business leaders to those Arkansans making noise on a global stage.
Arkansas Money & Politics wants to recognize them each year, because their work in industry and commitment to philanthropy is something that should be recognized. We’re proud to do so here.
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Debbie and Shane Broadway are an Arkansas political power couple with a legacy that began when Shane proposed at an Arkansas party on the White House lawn in 1995. He and Debbie were married under the Arkansas State Capitol rotunda in 1996, which they would walk back into two days later as Shane filed to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives.
Debbie spent more than 20 years in public service, working on the staff for Congressmen Bill Alexander, Ray Thornton and Vic Snyder, as well as Attorney General Mark Pryor. She has also worked for the Wilson and Associates law firm and the Bryant District Court. Though multiple sclerosis required an early retirement, she hasn’t let it slow or stop her from helping her community.
She has served on the boards of CASA of Saline County, the Bryant Boys and Girls Club, Saline County 4-H, the Bryant Historical Society, as well as the state and national boards of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. She founded Operation Underwear for the Bryant Rotary Club Kids Closet.
Shane, meanwhile, was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1996, where he focused on education, serving as a member of the House Education Committee and as chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference Education Committee. He was elected Speaker of the House in 2001, becoming the youngest person in Arkansas history to hold the position. When he was elected to the Arkansas Senate in 2002, Shane continued to work on legislation that improved educational opportunities for Arkansans across the state.
Shane is the vice president of governmental relations for Arkansas State University, his alma mater, and currently serves as chair of the Arkansas National Statuary Hall Steering Committee, president of the Saline County Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors and chair of the Political Animals Club of Little Rock. And perhaps most importantly to some, he’s one of the founders of the Salt Bowl, the annual tilt between neighbors and rivals Bryant High and Benton High played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The game draws in the neighborhood of 30,000 each year and has become recognized as the state’s best football rivalry game.
Together, the Broadways’ philanthropic and charitable endeavors would fill their own page.
