Mark A. Darr (born July 3, 1973) is the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to succeed Democrat Bill Halter in 2010, having defeated Democratic challenger State Senator and former House Speaker Shane Broadway by a margin of 51 to 49 percent.

Mark Darr was born in 1973 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He is a graduate of Mansfield High School in Mansfield, Arkansas, and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Mark Darr was elected Lieutenant Governor on November 2, 2010. He is the youngest person to win a statewide race as a Republican in Arkansas. Prior to the election, he had never run for public office. On November 2, 2010, in the closest constitutional race, Darr defeated state senator (and former Arkansas House Speaker Shane Broadway. Darr campaigned on the notion that he could file suit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which would be the duty of the attorney general. Darr promised to reduce wasteful spending, restore trust in government, and to establish a check and balance between the voter and those elected to office. In his first session the Arkansas Transparency Act was signed into law. The "online checkbook" as it is known will be up and running on July 1, 2012.

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).

The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1966, after one year at Stanford University, he left the United States to spend thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar. He entered the management consulting industry, which in 1977, led to a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that has helped fund his political campaigns. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as Ward Bishop and later Stake President in his area near Boston. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy. In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics; and he helped turn the fiscally troubled games into a success.