Career
Bentley"s place of birth, names of parents, and high school are missing. She ran without opposition in the Republican primary held on May 20, 2014, for the District 73 nomination to the state House. In the November 4 general election she unseated the two-term Democrat John Catlett by 196 votes, 3,588 (514 percent) to 3,392 (486 percent), in an election year highly favorable in Arkansas to her party.
In the 2012 general election, Catlett had defeated Bentley to gain his second term in the office.
Representative Bentley holds these committee assignments: (1) Public Health, Welfare, and Labor, (2) City, County, and Local Affairs, and (3) Legislative Joint Audit. In February 2015, Bentley joined dozens of her fellow Republicans and two Democrats in co-sponsoring legislation submitted by Representative Lane Jean of Magnolia, to reduce unemployment compensation benefits.
The measure was promptly signed into law by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson. That same month Bentley supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Republican Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion.
The measure passed the House, seventy-two to twenty.
Bennett claimed the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature. The measure was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, Bachelor of Science 975, by Governor Hutchinson.