The 2010 United States Senate election in Arkansas took place on November 2, 2010 alongside other elections to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in other states, as well as elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

Blanche Lincoln Blanche Lambert Lincoln (born Blanche Meyers Lambert; September 30, 1960) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the Senate in ...

ran for re-election to a third term, facing a strong primary challenge from Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter and prevailing only in a runoff. However, the general election was won by U.S. Representative

John Boozman John Nichols Boozman ( ; born December 10, 1950) is an American politician and former optometrist serving as the senior United States senator from Arkansas, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. repres ...

, the younger brother of

Fay Boozman Fay Winford Boozman III (November 10, 1946 – March 19, 2005) was an American ophthalmologist and politician who served as a member of the Arkansas Senate from 1995 to 1999. Boozman was born in 1946, the son of Marie Nicholas and U.S. Air Force ...

whom Lincoln defeated in 1998. Boozman became the first

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

in 138 years to win this seat. Lincoln's 21% margin of defeat was the largest for a sitting senator in 32 years.

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary was held on May 18, 2010, with

early voting Early voting, also called advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenience voting process by which voters in a public election can vote before a scheduled election day. Early voting can take place remotely, such as via postal voting, or in ...

from May 3 to 17. Lincoln was challenged by Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, who ran as a more liberal alternative. As no candidate received 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election was held on June 8, with early voting from June 1 to 7. Lincoln managed to narrowly defeat Halter in the runoff. MoveOn.org supported Halter, criticizing Lincoln for her stance on issues such as health care and environmental regulations. Labor unions also backed Halter, and pledged to spend more than $3 million on his campaign.

Candidates

Declared

* Bill Halter, incumbent

Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas The lieutenant governor of Arkansas presides over the Arkansas Senate with a tie-breaking vote, serves as acting governor of Arkansas when the governor is out of state and assumes the governorship in cases of impeachment, removal from office, deat ...

, incumbent U.S. Senator * D.C. Morrison, businessman

Polling

Results

Arkansas Senate Democratic primary, 2010

Runoff

Polling

Results

Arkansas Senate Democratic primary runoff, 2010

Republican primary

The Republican primary was held on May 18, 2010, with

from May 3–17.

Candidates

Declared

* Randy Alexander,

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

Housing Director and vice chair of the Washington County Tea Party * Gilbert Baker, state senator *

, optometrist and U.S. Representative for

Arkansas's 3rd congressional district Arkansas's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The district covers Northwest Arkansas and takes in Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Springdale, and Bentonville. The district is represented by Repu ...

* Curtis Coleman, businessman * Kim Hendren, minority leader of the

Arkansas Senate The Arkansas State Senate is the upper branch of the Arkansas General Assembly. The Senate consists of 35 members, each representing a district with about 83,000 people. Service in the state legislature is part-time, and many state senators have ...

* Jim Holt, former state senator, nominee for this U.S. Senate in 2004, and nominee for

in 2006 * Fred Ramey, real estate investment company owner * Conrad Reynolds, retired U.S. Army colonel

Straw poll

In December 2009, a straw poll was held for the current Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. The results were as follows: # Gilbert Baker – 35% # Curtis Coleman – 33% # Conrad Reynolds – 23% # Tom Cox – 4% # Kim Hendren – 2% # Fred Ramey – 2% # Buddy Rogers – 1%

Polling

Results

Arkansas Senate Republican primary, 2010

General election

Candidates

, U.S. representative *

, incumbent senator * Trevor Drown (L), military veteran * John Gray (G), Mayor of

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

Campaign

Arkansas had previously only elected one Republican senator since the

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

Tim Hutchinson Young Timothy Hutchinson (born August 11, 1949) is an American Republican politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas. Personal life Hutchinson was born in Bentonville in northwestern Arkansas, the son o ...

who was defeated after his first term in 2002 by

Mark Pryor Mark Lunsford Pryor (born January 10, 1963) is an American attorney, politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 2003 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to becoming senator, he was Attorn ...

. Lincoln faced Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter and narrowly won the primary contest. The political blog

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', sometimes rendered as ''538'', is an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in th ...

ranked Lincoln the most vulnerable senator of this electoral cycle. RealClearPolitics claimed that in 2010 Lincoln had the potential for the lowest percentage of the vote for any incumbent since the nation first began directly electing senators. Boozman received 58% of the vote in the general election and defeated Lincoln (37%),

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Trevor Drown (3%) and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

John Gray (2%). Lincoln heavily criticized Boozman of supporting the FairTax and privatization of Social Security. She released an advertisement touting her support for earmarks.

Debates

Lincoln and Boozman agreed to two debates. * September 10: At the

Peabody Hotel The Peabody Memphis is a historic luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, opened in 1925. The hotel is known for the "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop and make daily treks to the lobby. The Peabody is a member of Historic Hot ...

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

Predictions

Fundraising

Polling

;with Bill Halter

Results

References

External links

Arkansas Secretary of State - Elections

U.S. Congress candidates for Arkansas
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in s ...

Arkansas U.S. Senate 2010
from OurCampaigns.com
Campaign contributions
from

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente buil ...

2010 Arkansas Senate General Election: All Head-to-Head Matchups
graph of multiple polls from ''Pollster.com''
Election 2010: Arkansas Senate
from

Rasmussen Reports Rasmussen Reports is an American polling company founded in 2003. The company engages in political commentary and the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports conducts nightly tracking, ...

2010 Arkansas Senate Race
from

Real Clear Politics RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political new ...

2010 Arkansas Senate Race
from

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combine ...

Race profile
from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

;Debates
Arkansas Senate Democratic Primary Debate
C-SPAN, April 23, 2010
Arkansas Senate debate excerpts
OnTheIssues.org ;Official campaign sites
Randy Alexander for U.S. Senate

Gilbert Baker for U.S. Senate

John Boozman for U.S. Senate

Curtis Coleman for U.S. Senate

Tom Cox for U.S. Senate

Trevor Drown for U.S. Senate

Bill Halter for U.S. Senate

Jim Holt for U.S. Senate

Blanche Lincoln for U.S. Senate
incumbent
Fred Ramey for U.S. Senate

Colonel Conrad Reynolds for U.S. Senate

Buddy Roger for U.S. Senate
{{United States elections, 2010 2010 Arkansas elections

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

2010

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

Polling

Results

Runoff

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

Straw poll

Polling

Results

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Debates

Predictions

Fundraising

Polling

Results

See also

References

External links