Copyright Arkansas Times
Trey “BoDirt” Bohannan, a construction and landscaping company owner from Stuttgart, announced his candidacy on Monday for the 2026 Republican nomination in Senate District 10. To get that nomination, he will have to defeat incumbent state Sen. Ron Caldwell (R-Wynne), who is seeking his fourth term. While that might seem like a tough hill to climb, Bohannan is hopeful an endorsement from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will help him reach the top. Bohannan, whose real name is Woodrow Malvern Bohannan III, is a self-described “lifelong conservative” who is “as Republican as they come … pro-life, pro-gun, pro-Trump, PERIOD,” according to his website. He owns and operates Design One Landscaping in Pine Bluff, which Gov. Sanders named “Arkansas Business of the Month” in May. According to the Democrat-Gazette, Gov. Sanders’ office confirmed she has endorsed Bohannan in this race. Why she would do so is anyone’s guess, but there are two reasons more likely than the rest, both of which may be at play here: (1) Caldwell has announced his intention to run for Arkansas Senate president pro tempore for the 2027-2028 session, and Sanders might want to hinder any momentum Caldwell has by primarying him and making other legislators wonder if Caldwell will even be in the Legislature at that point. And (2) Caldwell was a consistent “no” vote in the fight over funding the construction of a proposed 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County. That funding failed to pass the Senate five times last spring. Whatever Sanders’ personal reason for endorsing him, Bohannan credits his success in business both to America generally and to being conservative. “My business is proof-positive that the American Dream can be achieved through hard work, determination and sound financial practices,” Bohannan said in a written statement posted on Facebook. “It is because of this success that I consider myself a Conservative Republican.” Senate District 10 is a sprawling, agriculture-heavy district in eastern Arkansas that covers Cross, Jackson, Monroe, Prairie and Woodruff counties and parts of Arkansas, Lee, Lonoke, Poinsett and St. Francis counties. Against this rural backdrop, Bohannan says he has become “one of the South’s fastest-growing ag influencers.” As influencers go, his numbers are respectable if unspectacular — “over 150,000 followers across social media,” as he puts it — with the majority (135.4K) following him on his @treybodirt TikTok account. Bohannan posts nearly daily on TikTok. Most videos offer his “tips” for other small business owners, review random pieces of farm and construction equipment, or ruminate on life in general. In mid-September, however, Bohannan mixed it up a bit and released a video discussing his recent turn to sobriety. “Alright guys,” he starts, “my whole life I’ve been told I had a problem drinking alcohol. I never saw that I had a problem drinking. It was pretty damn easy for me. But I’ve had several people email, and I wanted to go ahead and make light of this.” The video continues with Bohannan blaming attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder for his desire to polish off “20 or 30” beers in one sitting. But, he said, he “hasn’t had a drink in three months, and I’m damn proud of it.” “I’ve quit drinking several times in my life, but this time it’s the real deal,” he said. And maybe it is! The point of including this video is not to mock Bohannan. He should be proud that he hasn’t had a drink in however many days it has been. That said, as the adult child of an alcoholic who tried more than once to quit drinking, the whole “I’ve been dry for a few months; time to make some gigantic life change rather than focusing on repairing the existing things in my life that decades of drinking damaged” routine is a familiar one. And that’s why his video, as dismissive as it was about his struggles with drinking, gives me pause about Bohannan diving headlong into a contested primary after only three or four months of sobriety. Regardless of what he posts on social media, Bohannan’s odds of taking down a three-term incumbent seem to hinge on how much weight Sanders’ endorsement carries. After all, there is a reason Arkansas has a 99% win rate for incumbents. Unfortunately for Bohannan, if recent history is any indication, that endorsement might be less helpful than he is hoping.
