Sullivan takes Cooper’s seat in District 21
GOP, Democrat senators best challengers in 2 races
With the backing of the National Rifle Association, state Rep. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro beat state Sen. John Cooper of Jonesboro in Tuesday’s Republican primary in a rematch of a race that Sullivan lost more than six years ago.
Sullivan will be unopposed for Senate District 21 in the Nov. 3 general election.
The Sullivan-Cooper battle was the highest-profile legislative primary in Arkansas on Tuesday.
The unofficial results were:
Sullivan ......................... 5,487 Cooper .......................... 3,879
Cooper, a retired Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. manager, has represented Senate District 21 since a special election in January 2014 when he defeated Jonesboro Democrat Steve Rockwell. District 21 includes most of Craighead County.
In a November 2013 Republican runoff for the Senate seat, Cooper narrowly defeated Sullivan by 67 votes — 1,486 to 1,419.
Sullivan, a retired executive for Ascent Children’s Health Services, has represented House District 53 since 2015.
Cooper said Tuesday night that the NRA’s endorsement of Sullivan was probably a major factor in his defeat.
“I think everything we could have overcome except that, probably too much to overcome,” he said in a telephone interview. “People say they don’t like negative campaigns, but they seem to work. They did in this one.
“We chose to run a positive campaign instead of negative. I would rather lose with my integrity than win without it,” Cooper said.
Sullivan said Tuesday night that he defeated Cooper because “we ran on a platform by listening to the people and they went out to vote and supported the things we said.”
He said the NRA’s endorsement was one of the reasons that he beat Cooper. He said another factor is his opposition to raising taxes,
including the proposed constitutional amendment to permanently extend the state’s 0.5% sales tax for highways and roads on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
“We talked about John’s voting record [and] John and I disagreed vigorously on issues,” Sullivan said. He said he didn’t run a negative campaign.
In their rematch, Cooper and Sullivan sparred over “stand your ground” gun legislation, the state’s Medicaid expansion, highway funding and taxes.
While Cooper had the endorsement of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sullivan picked up the NRA endorsement in February because Cooper voted against “stand your ground” legislation in the 2019 regular legislative session.
Cooper was the only Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against the legislation. The bill would have eliminated the “duty to retreat” from Arkansas self-defense laws, after hours of testimony against the measure from gun control groups, law enforcement officials, prosecutors and civil rights advocates.
Cooper said he voted against the bill after attorneys advised him that the bill could be used by a criminal to target somebody and get away with murder. But Sullivan said he favored the bill because the Second Amendment “is your God-given right” and he doesn’t consider the bill a license to murder people.
When Sullivan announced his challenge of Cooper in May 2019, Sullivan said Cooper has failed to live up to “conservative promises” to defund the state’s Medicaid expansion and Sullivan has consistently voted against funding the program. Cooper disputed Sullivan’s assertion.
In 2015, Cooper said he voted to authorize the use of state and federal funds for the program because “I just don’t believe just outright defunding is the way to go because of the havoc it would create.”
The Medicaid expansion is now known as Arkansas Works and provides low-income health coverage to about 250,000 low-income Arkansans.
During the campaign, Sullivan said he is willing to accept the state’s current Medicaid expansion program, but he wants to leverage his vote for granting spending authority for the program to restore funding cutbacks for services such as behavioral health and disability services in the traditional Medicaid program.
In the other four contested Senate primary races on Tuesday:
■ Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin aide Ben Gilmore of Crossett was leading McGehee farmer Bill Dunklin for the Republican nomination in Senate District
26. The winner will take on state Sen. Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, in the general election. Cheatham has represented the district since 2013.
The unofficial results in the Republican primary in Senate District 26 were: Gilmore .............. 3,907 Dunklin ............... 3,714
■ Pine Bluff attorney Keidra Burrell defeated former state Rep. Garry Smith of Camden for the Democratic nomination in Senate District 27. Burrell will challenge state Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, in the general election. Garner has served in the Senate since 2017.
The unofficial results were:
Burrell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,579 Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,321
■ State Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale beat former Game and Fish Commission Director Jeff Crow of Hot Spring County for the Republican nomination in Senate District 13. Clark will face Hot Springs Democrat Brandon Overly in the general election. Clark has served in the Senate since 2013.
The unofficial results were:
Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,894 Crow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,233
■ State Sen. Stephanie Flowers of Pine Bluff defeated former state Rep. Efrem Elliott of White Hall for the Democratic nod in Senate District
25. The winner will be unopposed in the general election. Flowers has served in the Senate since 2011.
The unofficial results were:
Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,475 Elliott ................. 2,171 This primary election race was a rematch of their 2012 primary, which Flowers won.