09/16/2026
Get ready for Gala 2026, on Tuesday, October 20th. Our guest speaker will be Cole Jester, Arkansas Secretary of State.
Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester is a lifelong Arkansan and constitutional lawyer who has been involved in tackling many of Arkansas’s most pressing issues.
Prior to his appointment, Secretary Jester served in Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ administration as Deputy Chief Legal Counsel, where he spearheaded efforts to stop the Chinese Communist Party from buying Arkansas farmland and worked to reduce hundreds of burdensome government regulations. He also oversaw litigation against Big Tech, focusing on its intentionally addictive designs.
Before joining the Governor’s Office, Secretary Jester worked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. While attending the University of Virginia School of Law, he clerked for the firm of Friday, Eldridge, & Clark, worked for the United States Air Force, and argued criminal cases in Virginia district court. He also served as the Managing Editor of The Journal of Law and Politics, founded in 1983 by Justice Antonin Scalia.
Under Secretary Jester’s tenure as Secretary of State, Arkansas has moved from number eight to number one in the nation for election security.
Jester is a proud husband to his wife, Elizabeth and is a new girl dad to his daughter, Charlotte.
