PHOTO: From left, Sen. Bryan King, Bobby Ballinger, Sen. Ron Caldwell and Trey “BoDirt” Bohannan. | Photos courtesy of the Arkansas Secretary of State
By AINSLEY PLATT | Arkansas Advocate
Two veteran Arkansas lawmakers are fighting for their political lives in Tuesday’s Republican primaries, with a barrage of mailers and ads funded by outside groups casting them as insufficiently conservative against challengers backed by GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The flood of mailers targeting Sens. Bryan King and Ron Caldwell over the past several weeks have featured images of the Chinese flag, drag queens reading to schoolchildren and drones chasing farmers. Sharp elbows are nothing new in Arkansas politics, but the especially acrimonious tone and scale of the campaigning surprised some.
The races have drawn an odd cast of political players that’s included Kid Rock, the singer and ally of President Donald Trump who’s recorded a video in support of Caldwell’s challenger.
What’s not mentioned in the campaign attacks are the two lawmakers’ votes against a controversial 3,000-bed prison Sanders has advocated for. Both men say opposition to the prison is the real reason Sanders backed their opponents. The races could be a litmus test of Sanders’ pull within the Republican Party and the outcome may influence how much lawmakers in the party may be willing to break with her, observers say.
“If folks that are engaging in these races are successful in taking down incumbents based on the idea that they’re not pushing forward the agenda that has been set, I think that’s going to be pretty telling and that’s going to send a message,” said Robert Coon, a Republican political strategist and lobbyist in Arkansas.
The prison project is one of the few major areas of resistance Sanders, widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate in two years, has faced in a predominantly Republican Legislature. Funding for the project has hit roadblocks and drawn vocal objections from residents and local officials who say they don’t want the prison in their backyard and were left out of the decision-making.
Sanders has described the prison as necessary to keep cities safe and to ease overcrowding of state prisons that’s led to many state inmates being kept in local jails. Sanders did not answer specific questions about her reasons for backing King’s and Caldwell’s challengers and did not specifically mention the prison project.
“I am proud to support candidates up and down the ballot who have the courage to make the bold changes necessary to take Arkansas to the top,” Sanders wrote in a statement provided by her campaign manager.
Two prison project opponents running in special election
Tuesday’s results will determine who represents all three districts in the 2027 legislative session since the winners of the primaries in Senate Districts 10 and 28 won’t face an opponent during the November general election.
The winner of the Senate District 26 special election will replace the late Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a vocal opponent of the prison who died in September.
Adam Watson is running as an independent in the district against Republican nominee Brad Simon. Both say they’re opposed to the Franklin County prison, which is set to be built within the district on an 815-acre plot purchased by the state in 2024.
Even with a Watson win, Republicans would hold a supermajority in the Senate. Prior to Stubblefield’s death, the GOP held 29 of 35 seats in the upper chamber. Most appropriations bills require at least 27 votes in the chamber to pass.
The last year of Stubblefield’s time in the Senate was defined in large part by his opposition to the construction of the 3,000-bed state prison in his district. Stubblefield’s anger reflected that of many of his constituents, who have rallied to oppose the project.
Prominent Arkansas Republicans mostly refrained from weighing in on the race during the primary. After Simon won the nomination, Sanders donated $3,500 to the Republican nominee’s campaign.
Simon said “absolutely nothing” has changed, and that he is still opposed to funding the prison in its current location.
Observer: Sanders’ role in 2 races carries political risks
King is facing Bobby Ballinger, the son of Bob Ballinger, a former state senator who lost his seat to King in 2023.
Caldwell is being challenged by Trey “BoDirt” Bohannan, a farm influencer who reviews equipment and posts about farm life for his 300,000 social media followers, according to his campaign site.
King in particular has been a vocal opponent of Sanders and her staff in general, regularly deriding the former White House press secretary’s plans as fiscally irresponsible.
“Naturally, she wants somebody she can control instead of somebody that has been in the Legislature, has a clear record of pointing out fiscal irresponsibility and calling out hypocrisy and lies on their part,” King said in an interview.
Caldwell, while less outspoken compared to King, has his own reservations about the cost of the prison and Sanders’ signature education bill, the LEARNS Act. He said that other than a few disagreements, however, he voted along with the governor “98% to 99% of the time.” He was not present to vote on the law in 2023.
“I don’t believe in passing bills that have mistakes and errors that need to be fixed, I think we ought to fix them on the front end, and that’s one thing that the governor doesn’t like. She’ll put out a massive bill and want it passed and we pay the price later,” Caldwell said.
Glossy mailers attacking both men’s voting records and paid for by dark money groups have been arriving in mailboxes at least since January. Caldwell estimated at least thirty different mailers targeting him have been circulating in his district — and that’s on top of TV ads, he said.
King said the mailers were just a distraction from larger issues of state spending, while Caldwell called them “character assassinations.”
Ballinger, King’s opponent, said in a written statement that people in District 28 didn’t talk about the prison. He said it was “not the current plan” when asked if he would vote for funding the construction of the Franklin County prison if it comes up in 2027.
Bohannan said in a written statement that Caldwell was Trump’s “worst enemy in the state Senate,” echoing a phrase that’s appeared on campaign ads. Bohannon said the state needs a prison whether it’s in “Franklin County or Disney World,” but didn’t answer whether he would vote to provide the funds to build it in its current planned location in 2027.
Sanders’ support for primary challengers against incumbents in her own party is atypical but not completely unprecedented. Sanders’ predecessor, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, in 2016 endorsed a challenger to a lawmaker who had opposed his efforts to keep the state’s Medicaid expansion. That challenger, however, lost.
The strategy Sanders is using is reminiscent of Trump, Coon said. Trump has endorsed primary challengers as a form of retribution against members of Congress who don’t fall in line with his demands.
But the strategy is a double-edged sword if the challengers Sanders has endorsed lose, Coon said.
“There’s the old adage of, ‘If you’re going to shoot the king, kill the king,’” Coon said. “It’s politics, right? There’s always going to be consequences on both sides.”
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