Asa Hutchinson has secured the Republican nomination for re-election as Arkansas' governor, fending off a challenge from a Hot Springs gun range owner who criticized his conservative credentials.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:16 p.m. At that time, unofficial results showed Hutchinson with 45,023 votes and Jan Morgan with 17,272 votes, with 2.7 percent of the vote said to be in.
In his speech Tuesday night, Hutchinson noted that the race hasn't just been about being a candidate for governor.
"This race has also been about the soul of the Republican Party, and I am very pleased that the Republican voters of Arkansas chose hope and optimism for our future."
He will face former Teach for America executive Jared Henderson in November. Henderson defeated Leticia Sanders on Tuesday night to win the Democratic nomination.
Morgan, the owner of the Gun Cave shooting range in Hot Springs and a former television reporter and news anchor, previously called Hutchinson "a big government, tax-and-spend, establishment progressive."
Hutchinson, who was first elected in 2014, called that assessment "comical" and pointed to accomplishments that included income tax cuts and a reduction in the number of state workers during his first term. He is a former federal Homeland Security undersecretary and head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In 2014, Morgan drew national media attention by declaring her gun range a "Muslim Free Zone."
U.S. CONGRESS DISTRICT 4
Republicans in southern and western Arkansas want Bruce Westerman to serve a third term in Congress.
Westerman on Tuesday defeated a Pentecostal preacher who said God had told him to run. The Rev. Randy Caldwell had referred to himself as "Dr.," but an aide told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper that the title was honorary. Until recently, Caldwell had lived in Texas.
In November, Westerman will face Democratic candidate Hayden Catherine Shamel of Hot Springs and Scranton Libertarian Tom Canada.
Westerman is a forester from Hot Springs and is sponsoring the Resilient Federal Forests Act, which would make it harder for environmentalists to derail federal forest management plans. Caldwell had said he wanted to "drain the swamp" and support traditional values and the Second Amendment.
ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
An Arkansas Supreme Court justice and an attorney backed by an out-of-state Republican group are advancing to a runoff in a race for a high court seat that was marked by outside attack ads.
Justice Courtney Goodson and Department of Human Services Chief Counsel David Sterling were the top two candidates in the heated three-person race in Tuesday's non-partisan judicial election. They advance to a runoff in the November general election. Appeals Court Judge Kenneth Hixson also ran for the high court seat.
The results set up a months-long extension of a bitter and expensive court fight.
The Judicial Crisis Network spent more than $935,000 on TV ads attacking Godson and Hixson, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Another group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, spent more than spent more than $564,000 on TV ads and mailers supporting Sterling.