United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2008

The Arkansas United States Senate election of 2008 will be held on November 4, 2008.

It had been thought that freshman Democrat Mark Pryor of Arkansas would be targeted in his first race as an incumbent. Pryor was the only Democrat to defeat an incumbent Republican senator in the otherwise GOP-dominated 2002 elections. He defeated freshman Republican Tim Hutchinson with 53 percent of the vote. While George W. Bush won Arkansas in both 2000 and 2004, he won it by a significantly smaller margin than most of the other Southern states.

However, on March 10, the state Republican Party announced it has no plans to field a candidate against Pryor. The only Republican to express interest in the race, health care executive Tom Formicola, decided not to run the weekend before filing began. Formicola lost the GOP primaries for the Senate in 2004 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006. As a result, Pryor will be one of the few freshman Senators to face no major-party opposition in a reelection bid. [ [http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=62041 Today's THV - KTHV Little Rock News Article ] ]

There had been speculation that former Governor Mike Huckabee would run against Pryor if his presidential bid were unsuccessful, but on March 8, Huckabee said he wouldn't contest the race. [ [http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080308%5cACQRTT200803082111RTTRADERUSEQUITY_0046.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Huckabee%20Says%20He%20Won't%20Run%20Against%20Pryor Huckabee says he won't run against Pryor] , Nasdaq.com]

The party Primary elections were held May 20th, followed by the runoff elections on June 10th. [ [http://www.votenaturally.org/all_about_voting_08_election_dates.html 2008 Election Dates and Deadlines] "Arkansas Secretary of State"]

Candidates

Democratic Party

*Mark Pryor, incumbent

Green Party

*Rebekah Kennedy

Polls

Pryor consistently enjoy an anout 90% support in the polls [http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Senate/Graphs/arkansas.html]

Election results

Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (US)
candidate = Mark Pryor
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party = Green Party (US)
candidate = Rebekah Kennedy
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change = Election box majority
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References

External links

* [http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/elections.html Elections] from the "Arkansas Secretary of State"
* [http://www.votesmart.org/election_congress_state.php?state_id=AR&go33.x=11&go33.y=9 U.S. Congress candidates for Arkansas] at Project Vote Smart
* [http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=senate-AR Arkansas, U.S. Senate] from CQ Politics
* [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=6993 Arkansas U.S. Senate] from "OurCampaigns.com"
* [http://www.2008racetracker.com/page/AR-Sen Arkansas U.S. Senate race] from "2008 Race Tracker"
* [http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?id=ARS1&cycle=2008 Campaign contributions] from OpenSecrets.org
*"official campaign websites"
** [http://www.kennedy2008.org/ Rebekah Kennedy] , Green Party candidate
** [http://www.pryor2008.com/ Mark Pryor] , Democratic incumbent

ee also

*United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2002