Arkansas’ primary election on Tuesday selected party nominees for a variety of state, federal and local elections and decided the winners of some nonpartisan judicial and prosecuting attorney races.
It also set up run-offs in some races in which no candidate won a majority of the vote.
Who won on Tuesday?
Sarah Huckabee Sanders handily won the Republican nomination for governor, and Democrat Chris Jones beat his opponents to secure his party’s nomination.
Sen. John Boozman fended off several challengers in the Republican primary for his Senate seat and will face off in November against Natalie James, who won the Democratic primary.
Other incumbent Republicans also succeeded Tuesday: Secretary of State John Thurston rewon the Republican nomination for his office, and the three challenged Republican incumbents for U.S. House of Representatives, Steve Womack, French Hill and Rick Crawford, also retained their party’s nominations.
In a one for one switch, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, beating five opponents, while Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin won the Republican nomination for attorney general.
Who lost on Tuesday?
Five current Republican state lawmakers lost to challengers in their primaries:
- Sen. Bill Sample of Hot Springs
- Sen. Charles Beckham of McNeil
- Rep. Craig Christiansen of Bald Knob
- Rep. David Hillman of Almyra
- Rep. David Tollett of Lexa
Who is headed to a runoff?
There will be a statewide runoff in the nonpartisan race for Position 2 on the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Incumbent Justice Robin Wynne received the greatest number of votes, but did not receive more than 50% of the total ballots cast, which is required to win outright. He will face District Judge Chris Carnahan, who received the second greatest number of votes, in a November runoff.
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