Daniel Holtmeyer

Daniel Holtmeyer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2012 and a graduate degree from the University of Arkansas in 2023. Holtmeyer's career experience includes working as a small business owner.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name’s Dan Holtmeyer, and I’m running for Arkansas House District 15 because we deserve better.

Arkansas Republicans have forgotten the people and values that actually make this community great. And they’ve forgotten that our state and its government doesn’t belong to them — it belongs to all of us.

I’m a longtime journalist and small business owner who’s lived in Northwest Arkansas for more than a decade and in District 15 for four years.

For most of my adult life I’ve worked as a reporter, covering all levels of government and other important issues across the U.S., listening to people of all stripes, and learning about every subject that I could. My career included five years at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and two more at the Northwest Arkansas Council, where I worked as its first recycling program manager. I know how state and local government works, and I know how it can work better.

Nowadays I’m mostly running a native plant nursery for gardeners, landscapers and conservation groups across NWA, as well as providing portrait, event and art photography services. I've got a master’s degree in geography from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, with a focus on climate and green infrastructure. I live in south Rogers with my husband.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

The Republican Party is trashing everything good, decent and beautiful about this country and our community. They’ve made life harder, more hateful and more expensive. And Arkansas’ leaders do nothing to stop it.

I’m running to stand up for Rogers: for my immigrant neighbors, my senior neighbors, my veteran neighbors, my hungry neighbors, my whole community. We don’t have a state government that will stick up for us. But what if we did?Arkansas Republicans are taking away our voices and our power to choose our own laws. They’ve added one obstacle after another to the ballot initiative process and are making it harder to vote.

I’m running to protect our voices and our power. I’ll fight to make it easier, not harder, for us to use our civil rights. “The People Rule” is our state motto. It’s time to act like it.Arkansas Republicans waste our time and money on nonsense laws, firing librarians, hurting public safety and siphoning millions of dollars away from public schools. None of that makes our lives better.

I’m running to make housing and health care easier to afford, and to protect our water and our outdoors. I want government that does good instead of evil. I want government that makes life better instead of worse. We'll only get that with new representation in Little Rock.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm interested in any policy that can make life better for the people of District 15 and Arkansas as a whole, but I've got a particular passion for public health and safety, voter access, immigration, housing and the environment. I think of the social safety net as more of a social foundation: a bedrock from which we can all build better lives.