Jim Guy Tucker served as governor of Arkansas in the years after Bill Clinton left the position for the presidency.
- Died: February 13, 2025 (Who else died on February 13?)
- Details of death: Died at a hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas of complications from ulcerative colitis at the age of 81.
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Jim Guy Tucker’s legacy
Tucker was one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party of Arkansas beginning in the 1970s, and his star rose all the way to the governor’s mansion. But a wrench was thrown into his political career when he was caught up in the Whitewater scandal of the 1990s.
Wanting to serve his country, Tucker joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves after graduating from Harvard University, but he only served for a short time, hampered by chronic ulcers. After being discharged for medical reasons, he found his way to Vietnam without the military, working in the war zone for several years as a freelance journalist.
Back home in the late 1970s, Tucker got his law degree and began practicing as an attorney. He entered public life as Arkansas’s attorney general, serving from 1973 to 1977. He was then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving a single term from 1977 to 1979 before stepping down with his sights set higher. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate, and in the early ‘80s, he began challenging Clinton for the governorship.
Though Clinton won the 1982 gubernatorial election, Tucker realized his rival had plans to seek the presidency, and in 1990, he mounted a successful campaign for lieutenant governor. While Clinton was campaigning around the country for president, Tucker served as acting governor in his absence, and he became governor when Clinton won the 1992 presidential election.
Tucker was re-elected in 1994, and during his time in office, he worked to improve the state’s prison system and championed its schools. However, in his second term, he was targeted by the Whitewater investigation into Clinton’s real estate investments. Prosecutor Kenneth Starr (1946–2022) found a loan, unrelated to the Whitewater Development Company in which Clinton was involved, that had been misused. Tucker was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud and sentenced to four years’ probation, avoiding prison due to his poor health. Shortly after the 1996 conviction, he was placed on the liver transplant list, and he underwent successful transplant surgery on Christmas Day that year.
After the conviction, Tucker resigned from the governorship, though he maintained he was innocent. In later years, his conviction was questioned, with some believing that he was unjustly targeted and that he was as innocent as he insisted. After his political career, Tucker spent time in Asia, building a cable television system in Indonesia and developing a fundraising arm of Heifer International in Hong Kong.
Tributes to Jim Guy Tucker
Full obituary: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
