FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2026
CONTACT
Jon-Austen Linch
Director of Communications and Legislative Affairs
[email protected]
RUTLEDGE APPOINTS ATTORNEY BETH WALKER TO ARKANSAS ETHICS COMMISSION
LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Leslie Rutledge is proud to appoint Elisabeth A. (Beth) Walker of Little Rock to the Arkansas Ethics Commission to serve as a Commissioner effective February 10, 2026. Walker will replace Wendy L. Johnson, whose five-year term expired on December 31, 2025.
“Beth has had a distinguished career in public service and the law. I worked closely with Beth for eight years as Attorney General and have personally witnessed her unwavering commitment to fairness, her impeccable work ethic, and legal acumen from decades of experience interpreting the law,” said Rutledge. “I am pleased to appoint her to continue upholding the integrity of our state’s ethical standards. I would also like to thank Wendy Johnson for her honorable service on the Commission.”
Walker says, “I am deeply grateful to Lieutenant Governor Rutledge for this appointment and the opportunity to serve on the Arkansas Ethics Commission. I look forward to contributing to its vital mission of enforcing ethics laws and ensuring transparency and accountability in Arkansas.”
Walker will serve a five-year term on the Commission.
About Elisabeth A. Walker
Elisabeth A. (Beth) Walker is a retired Little Rock lawyer. She practiced law in Little Rock from 1982 until her retirement in January of 2023. She received her undergraduate degree, with Phi Beta Kappa honors, from the University of North Carolina and her JD from Southern Methodist University. She spent most of her career in the Office of Arkansas Attorney General, where she served as an Assistant Attorney General and as Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Opinions Department. She is married and has one son.
About Lieutenant Governor Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge was sworn in on January 10, 2023 as Arkansas’s 21st Lieutenant Governor and the first woman to ever hold the State’s second-highest office. Rutledge previously served two terms as the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas from 2015-2023. She was also the first woman and first Republican elected to the office of Attorney General. A seventh-generation Arkansan, Rutledge grew up on a cattle farm and attended school at the Southside School District in Independence County. From her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, a lawyer and a judge, Rutledge learned the importance of hard work and service. Rutledge is an Arkansas lawyer who has spent her career serving the public. She graduated from the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge is admitted to practice law in Arkansas, Washington D.C., and before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rutledge’s career in public service includes being a judicial clerk for Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Josephine Hart, Deputy Counsel in the Office of Governor Mike Huckabee, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County, and Attorney for Arkansas’s Division of Children and Family Services. Rutledge was Deputy Counsel for the Mike Huckabee for President 2008 campaign, Deputy Counsel at the National Republican Congressional Committee and Counsel for the Republican National Committee during the 2012 Presidential campaign. Over the years, her civic service has extended to community organizations including the Junior League, Alpha Delta Pi Alumni, National Rifle Association, Federalist Society, Women in Networking in Central Arkansas and the Republican National Lawyers Association. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and farms in Crittenden County and Independence County.