Everyone loves a David and Goliath story: Someone takes on the giant when everyone else is too afraid to try.
Brandon Achor has lived that story. He is a cancer survivor, and so is his wife. He owns independent pharmacies that still serve rural Arkansas in person. And he took on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), some of the most powerful corporations in American health care.
PBMs decide which drugs get covered, which pharmacies get paid, how much your medicine costs, and which pharmacies even get to exist. When PBMs moved to own pharmacies themselves and steer Arkansas patients to their out-of-state mail-order operations, Brandon helped pass the first law in the nation to stop them. The companies sued, and the fight is now in federal court. Brandon hasn't backed down.
That kind of fight takes someone who has sat in the patient's chair, stood behind the counter, and seen exactly who pays when the giants win.
I know the kind of care he provides, because he is my family's pharmacist. He takes care of everyone from my 8-year-old daughter to my parents in their 80s. He explains medications, catches potential problems, and treats every person who comes through the door with the same attention. That is the standard he has held in the pharmacies he and his wife, Kaley, have built and sustained across 13 communities in central and rural eastern Arkansas. In much of rural Arkansas, the local pharmacist is the most accessible health-care provider around. Brandon has worked to keep that care close to home.
His family motto is "Always Show Up," and he does that as a patient, a pharmacist, a state representative, a business owner, a husband, and a father. He has worked to give every parent the ability to choose the school that best fits their child, regardless of income. He supported the Protect Arkansas Act and its tougher sentencing for the most violent offenders. He has sponsored legislation to strengthen the integrity of our elections and voted for tougher laws to counter China's influence in Arkansas. High health-care costs and burdensome regulations hit working families hardest, and he treats those problems with the urgency of someone who sees their consequences up close.
He has also made the case that investing in moms and babies is an investment in the future of the state. It is a conviction formed behind the pharmacy counter, where he sees young families every day, and at his own dinner table.
I have watched Brandon serve in the Arkansas House. He does the job the way he runs his pharmacies: He shows up, he does the work, and he does not treat the people who depend on him as an afterthought.
That is why I am proud to support him for the Arkansas Senate. He has earned my trust as a customer. He has earned my respect as a constituent. He has earned my loyalty as a friend. And he has earned my vote.
Goliath may be hurt, but he's gearing up for another round. The companies Brandon took on have more lawyers and more money than any pharmacist in Maumelle, and they are counting on Arkansas to lose its nerve. Brandon won't. He has already faced down cancer and the biggest names in American health care. Arkansas patients need that kind of fighter in the Senate, someone who has proven he believes that the people at the pharmacy counter are worth the fight.
Early voting is underway, and Election Day is Tuesday. Join me in sending Brandon Achor to the Arkansas Senate, and let's keep the sling in his hand.
Leslie Rutledge serves as the lieutenant governor of Arkansas. She previously served as the 56th attorney general of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023.
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