Our picks for Tuesday’s primary election.

The primary is two short days away

THE PRIMARY is upon us all, and it’s about time. This campaign season has been going on for-evah. Expect a bit of a downshift come Wednesday morning, after the winners in Arkansas are announced. But don’t expect to be rid of all politics until November. Oh, no. The presidential primary campaigns for each party might go on for weeks and weeks. Then there’s the general election. Oh, joy!

Speaking of presidential campaigns—and speaking of who’d be the best leader of the free world and commander-in-chief of the United States’ armed forces—we’ve endorsed Marco

Rubio in the Republican primary. And not just because of who he’s not. The senator from Florida is getting a lot of support in Arkansas and around the country for who he is. For his story. For his ideas. For America’s future.

When he came to Arkansas last week, the man didn’t insult his competitors. He didn’t make promises nobody could keep. And he didn’t have to apologize for his campaign. He talked about free enterprise. He talked about taxes. He talked about big government. And he talked about the need for Republicans to nominate a conservative candidate and a candidate who can win in November.

Marco Rubio is a young man. He’d be only 45 come inauguration day. But age shouldn’t be a concern. (Teddy Roosevelt was a young president. JFK was a young president. A man named Clinton, who used to live around here, was a young president.) Marco Rubio has enough experience in politics, and life, to hold his own in office. Listen to him speak. The room is never too big for him.

Marco Rubio has the bearing, the knowledge of foreign affairs, the domestic policy bonafides, and even the thoughtful manner that Americans need in the next president. In two days, let’s give him a win in Arkansas.

YOU MIGHT not believe it— you might not be able to believe it—but there still are United States senators with demeanors that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to see at the Sunday dinner table. In front of mama.

Yes, there are plenty of Ted Cruzes and Al Frankens and Harry Reids and Chuck Schumers. But every now and then they are separated on the seating chart by a John Boozman.

John Boozman is a true conservative, not a bomb-thrower. That is, he doesn’t put himself and his Press Mentions above the good of the country. He leads by example, not by television interviews. He does the job taxpayers have paid him to do, working on several committees and staying true to his principles—rather than scoring points to placate yet another strain of the Know-Nothings that rise in American politics from time to unfortunate time. There are plenty of those types on the stump just now. Read the front pages.

John Boozman deserves to win this primary, again. He’s done more than enough to win the trust of Arkansans.

HOW DID French Hill get a primary opponent this time around? Simple: What a country! Even the most successful, knowledgeable and reasonable congressman might draw an opponent, even in a primary. As it should be. Let the pols answer for their time in office. Ain’t democracy grand?

But as grand as democracy is, sometimes even incumbents deserve re-election. (These things happen.) And we can think of no incumbent who deserves re-election more than French

Hill, your congressman for much of central Arkansas.

The man had a load of experience before he ever ran for office. In banking. At the U.S. Treasury. In politics. His résumé is too long to list here.

And during his short time in office, French Hill has voted to get rid of that ban on oil exports, defund Planned Parenthood, rein in certain government regulations, hold Veterans Affairs accountable for scandals . . . . These are things that Arkansans support, too. For these and many other reasons, French Hill deserves this primary win.

THERE ARE two races for the state’s top court this time around. In both races, there is a clear best choice.

Dan Kemp is a longtime Circuit Court judge from Mountain View, and was running for the chief justice position on the Arkansas Supreme Court—and talking about the need for integrity on the bench—months before your statewide paper began reporting on integrity on the bench. Or the lack thereof.

Goodness, who knew so much money went to the campaigns of Supreme Court justices? Thanks to the reporting staff around here, now everybody knows. And the smell isn’t pleasant.

Dan Kemp might bring solid integrity to a bench that could use more of it. He’s been a judge for three decades. He’s an elder in his church. He’s a family man. And there’s nary of rumor about any ethics problems in his tenure on the bench. Which might explain why so many people—of all political persuasions—back his candidacy. As do we.

The other race for Supreme Court, the one without all the commercials on TV and radio, is just as important. And we endorse Judge Shawn Womack.

He’s had all kinds of experience, and not just on the bench. Shawn Womack worked for Tim Hutchinson in the United States Senate, then came back to Arkansas to open up a law practice. Then he went into politics and was mighty successful at it, too.

Judge Womack says, sure, he acted politically back when he had a political job in the Ledge, but once he became a judge, he hung up the political hat. For the record, his judicial rulings have been overturned once. One time.

Shawn Womack’s experience only recommends him—in that other, but most important, race for Supreme Court.