He wouldn’t have been a trailblazer, he simply would’ve lost running as a Republican, lucky to get 25-40% of the vote. Outside of urban districts with a population of Blacks and White leftists, SE AR is where virtually all of the remaining Democrats in the legislature hail from (it’s a poor backwater with a large Black population).
By 2020, those remaining rural White majority districts (such as the one this gentleman represents) will be electing Republicans at the legislative level (they’ve already gone GOP at the Presidential, Congressional and top Statewide offices level).
I don’t know the man’s voting record, presumably it’s been typical of a lot of the rural White Democrats (centrist). He’s only been in the legislature since Jan 2013 (there’s a three-term limit, so he can only run again one more time in the House).