PHOTO — Kim Hammer is the Republican nominee for Arkansas Secretary of State after a narrow victory in a primary runoff with Bryan Norris.
By ANDREW DeMILLO | Arkansas Advocate
Kim Hammer, a state senator who has sponsored several restrictions on Arkansas’ elections and initiative process, has won the Republican nomination for secretary of state.
Hammer narrowly defeated Army veteran Bryan Norris Tuesday in the Republican primary runoff to be the state’s top election official. Hammer will face Democrat Kelly Grappe and Libertarian Michael Pakko in the November general election.
Hammer won with nearly 50.6% of the vote, according to results from the secretary of state.
Editor’s note: Clark County voters — all 339 of them who cast a ballot in the primary runoff — supported Hammer, who claimed 203 votes to Norris’s 136, according to unofficial results announced Tuesday evening.
“When citizens participate, our democracy is strengthened and our Republic grows stronger,” Hammer said in a statement released Tuesday night. “I am honored and grateful to be the Republican nominee for secretary of state, and I look forward to the road ahead. Together, we will build momentum, unite our party, and work hard to secure a big victory for our GOP team in November.”
Hammer had the backing of the state’s top Republicans, including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Tom Cotton. A group linked to Sanders’ senior adviser Chris Caldwell spent more than $300,000 since the primary.
Hammer has promoted his work on several voting laws, including a law banning anyone from being within 100 feet of a polling location unless they’re exiting or entering. Norris challenged the law in court and sought to prevent it from being used to prohibit his campaign from exit polling. A federal judge denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the law’s enforcement.
Other laws sponsored by Hammer include one requiring canvassers to see voters’ ID before they sign a petition and another to read the ballot title to potential signers or see them read it. A federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the laws against groups that challenged their constitutionality.
Hammer is also the sponsor of the 2023 law that requires the state to allow a privately-funded anti-abortion monument on the Capitol grounds. Arkansas would be the first state with such a monument on state grounds.
The Republican race for secretary state sharply divided Republican figures in Arkansas, with top GOP leaders such as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton endorsing Hammer’s bid.
Secretary of State Cole Jester had also endorsed Hammer’s bid and condemned Norris over offensive social media messages, including one where he called Cotton a vulgar term.
The runoff was held as Trump and Republicans in Washington have been pushing for more voting restrictions, including an executive order the president signed Tuesday that attempts to restrict mail-in voting.
Both Hammer and Norris said they wanted to find ways to improve Arkansas voter turnout, which consistently has ranked at the bottom or near the bottom of the country in recent years.
Hammer has said he would like to set up “generational teams” to engage with different age groups on the importance of voting and would like to allow high school students to work at polling locations to fulfill their community service requirements.
Norris said he favored eliminating early voting and making Election Day a state holiday. He also vowed to conduct an audit of the state’s voting systems after each election.
The tight race for the secretary of state nomination comes weeks after a primary where candidates backed by the governor in three state Senate races lost. Sanders did not endorse anyone in the March 3 primary for Secretary of State, which included Miller County Judge Cathy Hardin Harrison. Sanders backed Hammer after he won the nomination.
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