Former state senator, head of the state department of higher education and president of the University of Central Arkansas Lu Hardin died Monday morning.

Hardin, 73, served in the Arkansas Senate as a Democrat from 1983 through 1996 before seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 1996. After Hardin lost the Senate primary to Tim Hutchinson, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee named Hardin chair of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education in January 1997, replacing the long-serving Diane Gilleland. (Hardin changed his voter registration to Republican in August 1997, according to public records.)

In August 2002, Huckabee wrote a letter of support for “my friend Lu Hardin” to become president of UCA. The following month, UCA trustees selected Hardin to lead the school. He remained in t

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