He represents District 14, which until August 23, 2013, included Marion, Mercer, Nelson, Taylor, and Washington counties in Central Kentucky.

Thereafter, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army, trained at Fort Lee, in Prince George County near Petersburg, Virginia.

[6] Higdon is a former board member of the Lebanon Housing Authority, the Kentucky Grocers Association, and the Marion County Chamber of Commerce.

The vacancy in the upper chamber of the legislature occurred when Republican Senator Dan Kelly of Springfield in Washington County was appointed as a state district court judge by Democratic Governor Steve Beshear.

In both cases, Beshear hoped to open two Republican Senate seats to possible Democratic victory but failed in that goal with Higdon's election.

[9] In 2002, with a 45 percent overall turnout of registered voters, Higdon narrowly won election for the first time to the Kentucky House from District 24 for the position vacated by Democrat William U.

When he was elevated to the Senate, voters early in 2010 chose a Democrat, Terry Mills, also from Lebanon, to succeed Higdon in the House.

[15] In 2011, Senator Higdon called for tighter state regulations to prevent physicians from establishing temporary clinics from which they issue prescriptions to drug abusers.

A "pain clinic" of this kind opened in Lebanon in 2010, but citizens complained of van-loads of people waiting in the parking lot to purchase prescriptions.

[16] Higdon supports allowing independent voters to cast ballots in major party primary elections.

Higdon said that many independent voters have told him that they are "taxpayers, they help pay for elections, so they should be able to vote" even if these persons declare no party allegiance.