Conventional wisdom among voters and observers in western Arkansas was that the special Republican primary runoff for Senate District 26 would be a tight contest. In the end, it wasn't particularly close: Businessman Brad Simon of Paris handily defeated retired businessman Wade Dunn of Greenwood with just over 65% of the nearly 5,600 votes cast.
Simon won all four counties in the runoff. In Logan County, where he's from, Simon got a whopping 80% of the vote. He also earned 68% of votes cast in Johnson County, 57% in Franklin County and 53% in Sebastian.
Logan County had the highest turnout, with 1,906 voters choosing between the candidates. Sebastian County was second with 1,711, while Franklin (1,233 votes) and Johnson (727) lagged behind. In terms of getting out the vote, nearly 16% of Logan County voters turned out for the runoff, followed by Franklin (14%), Sebastian (9%) and Johnson (6%).
Simon's victory did not come cheap. According to the pre-election report his campaign filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office, Simon spent nearly $221,000 on the race, with $175,000 of that coming in the form of personal loans from Simon to his campaign. By contract, Dunn...
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