John Thurston

Limited to two terms as state lands commissioner, Thurston announced in June 2016 he would run in 2018 for election as Arkansas secretary of state. As important issues, he cited election security, physical security, political accessibility, and redistricting of legislative boundaries. Thurston faced Trevor Drown in the Republican primary election, and was chosen as the Republican nominee. Running against former Director of Elections, Susan Inman, as the Democratic nominee, Thurston won election on November 6, 2018, as the next Arkansas Secretary of State.

He previously served as Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands. A Republican, he was first elected to that position in November 2010, took office in January 2011, and was reelected in November 2014 to a second term.

Thurston graduated in 1991 from Sheridan High School in Grant County in southern Arkansas. He then attended Agape College in the capital city of Little Rock. He is a former licensed Christian minister and a Certified Religious Assistant in the Arkansas state prison system. He worked 13 years for Agape Church in Little Rock before entering politics.

John Manuel Thurston (born December 27, 1972) is the current Secretary of State of Arkansas; elected in November 2018, he has served in the position since January 2019.

Thurston is the first Republican to be elected as Land Commissioner since the office became elective in 1874. In 2014, Thurston was elected as the president of the Western States Land Commissioners Association; the organization's winter conference was held in Little Rock that year.