Background and education

Parkinson is a St. Charles County native, graduating from Francis Howell High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Saint Louis University in 2000. He was married to Brigit Parkinson until 2021.

Group memberships

Parkinson holds lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association of America, and is also a member of Ducks Unlimited, Missouri Right to Life, and the National Park Foundation. In the St. Charles area, Parkinson is a member of the St. Charles chapter of the Pachyderms, a Republican social club.

Pre-elected career

In 2000, Parkinson began working for the St. Louis office of United States Senator Kit Bond. During his time with Bond, he eventually became the deputy district director of the St. Louis office, overseeing that office's constituent relations and constituent outreach programs. Among other responsibilities, Parkinson coordinated and conducted Bond's "Listening Post" program, holding local question-and-answer sessions across 17 counties in northeast Missouri.^[1]

Prior to his role with Bond, Parkinson also worked closely with the St. Louis Senate office of then-U.S. Senator and future U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Elected career and legislation

In 2007, Parkinson announced his intention to run for the 16th district state representative seat vacated by Carl Bearden, and was selected by the local Republican legislative committee to run as the party's candidate.^[2] Due to the nature of the election, there was no primary, and Parkinson faced Democrat Tom Fann in a special election held on the same day as Missouri's 2008 presidential primary. Despite over 500 more Democratic primary ballots being drawn, Parkinson won by 3%, and was sworn in on February 26, 2008.

Despite Parkinson's shortened timeframe during his first term, he sponsored immigration reform legislation that was eventually incorporated into an omnibus immigration bill and signed by governor Matt Blunt.^[3][4] For his work on this issue, he was recognized as one of the freshmen legislators of the year.

Parkinson was reelected in November 2008. During the 2009 session of the Missouri General Assembly, Parkinson has sponsored legislation dealing with immigration reform, property tax reform, tax deductions for homeschooling families, truth in sentencing legislation, and other issues.^[5] Parkinson was reelected in 2010. In 2012, following decennial redistricting, the former 16th district was renumbered as the 105th district, to which Parkinson was reelected. Parksinson could not seek reelection in 2016 due to term limits and was succeeded by Phil Christofanelli (R-Saint Peters).