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The Democratic Party of Baxter County will host Arkansas Supreme Court candidate John Adams at its next meeting on Friday, Feb. 7, at the Baxter County Library. The meeting begins at 10:15 a.m.
Adams, a Little Rock attorney, is challenging incumbent Justice Nicholas Bronni for Position 3 on the seven-member Arkansas Supreme Court. The nonpartisan election is set for March 3, with early voting beginning Feb. 16.
A fifth-generation Arkansan, Adams was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Little Rock. He is a graduate of Little Rock Catholic High School, Yale University and the University of Michigan Law School. He taught at Subiaco Academy before attending law school and began his legal career at a firm in New York before returning to Arkansas.
Adams brings more than two decades of legal experience to the race. He served as an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, where he represented the state in criminal appeals and habeas corpus proceedings. He later served as general counsel for Bear State, an Arkansas-based community bank, helping guide the institution through the 2008 financial crisis.
He currently practices at Fuqua Campbell in Little Rock, where his work spans commercial litigation, civil rights cases and constitutional law. He has also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, where his courses have included the Arkansas Constitution, First Amendment law and professional responsibility.
Adams has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 2021 for his work in appellate practice, banking and finance law, and commercial finance law. He was also named one of Arkansas’ best lawyers for appellate practice by the Arkansas Times.
On the campaign trail, Adams has emphasized judicial independence, voter accountability and access to justice. He has pointed to his pro bono work representing lower-income Arkansans struggling with court debts from minor violations.
“A lot of what I want to bring to the court is that sense of service to the people of Arkansas, and the ability to serve a term with an eye towards those kind of folks that really need the legal system to be the foundation of our ordered liberty, and not something else that is going to drag them under,” Adams has said.
He has also called on Bronni to participate in a series of public debates on judicial independence and constitutional interpretation before voters head to the polls.
Adams has previously run for public office twice as a Democrat. He was one of five candidates in the 2010 Democratic primary for Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District and ran for a state legislative seat in West Little Rock in 2014, losing to Republican Jim Sorvillo. While Arkansas judicial elections are officially nonpartisan, the race has drawn attention from both parties.
His opponent, Bronni, was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in December 2024 to fill a vacancy in Position 6. Arkansas law prohibits Bronni from running for the seat to which he was appointed, so he is instead seeking election to Position 3, currently held by Justice Cody Hiland. Hiland, who is likewise barred from running for Position 3, is running unopposed for the Position 6 seat being vacated by Bronni.
Before his appointment, Bronni served as the state’s solicitor general under Attorneys General Leslie Rutledge and Tim Griffin. He has received endorsements from the Republican Party of Arkansas, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, Sanders and Attorney General Griffin, among others.
The March 3 election is the only contested race for the Arkansas Supreme Court this cycle. More information about Adams’ campaign is available at johnforjustice.org.
