Incumbent Tom Cotton (R} - Restore of the federal death penalty - Edward Snowden is a traitor and a liar who exposed "lawful" programs he doesn't understand - Slavery was a "necessary evil" - Military "show-of-force" response for civil rights ("anarchist") protestors - Widely considered the next Trump
What happened: The Cotton campaign gathered damaging information about his Democratic rival Josh Mahoney's FEC filings, waited, and confronted him with it an hour after the candidate's filing deadline had lapsed. Mahoney dropped out and the Democrats were unable to field another candidate. An Independent candidate, Dan Whitfield, failed to gather enough signatures to gain ballot access. A judge heard his case asking for leeway due to the coronavirus and denied him, and he has appealed. In the unlikely case he wins his appeal, it will occur after ballots are printed and there is no precedent to reprint them.
Why it matters: The only candidate Cotton will face in November is Libertarian Ricky Harrington, Jr. This is an unprecedented high profile one-on-one race for the Libertarian Party. The state is small enough that it's possible to campaign on a grassroots effort, and Cotton's ability to stay in the headlines with incidiary comments provide near constant opportunities to make Ricky's name known.
Who is Ricky Dale Harrington? He is a prison chaplain with broad appeal. He is happily married with 3 children, his wife is a Navy Reservist. He graduated from Harding University in Arkansas and has spent his life in service as a missionary overseas and as a chaplain in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. These experiences brought him to a libertarian point of view. If elected, he would be the first African American that Arkansas sends to the US Senate.
Media coverage (THV11 clip on YouTube)
Media coverage (Reason Magazine Article)
Media coverage (Arkansas Times Article)
Media coverage (Arkansas Talk Business and Politics)
Media coverage (KNWA FOX24 Article)
About Arkansas politics: Arkansas, despite being a southern state, is not as deeply red as other like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It was only a decade ago that the state flipped solidly red, and it has consistently shown an independent streak that defies deep south conservative convention. Despite Trump handily winning Arkansas in 2016, recent polls have shown Trump within a couple points of losing the state this year, as well as a longtime Republican in danger of losing his house seat in congressional district 2. With Republicans losing their once tight grip on the state, Harrington has a real shot at winning this head-to-head matchup with Cotton. Cotton is not campaigning in Arkansas, but instead campaign nationally, frequently making inflammatory comments to raise his status amongst hard-line conservative groups around the country.
TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN ARKANSAS ABOUT RICKY!! Call, text, email, tag, dm, poke, your friends and family who live in Arkansas telling them about Ricky! Explain that the media has ignored his campaign up until only recently and that he's gaining momentum!
FOLLOW, SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, SHARE, RETWEET
We have relatively few followers at this point as the campaign has received little attention in the media heretofore, and since Ricky has been doing a lot of handshaking and face-to-face campaigning in lieu of online campaigning. But the apparatus is there and ready to be built up!! We desperately need an army of supporters to tag, like, share, and spread the word online!!
https://twitter.com/RickyForSenate
https://www.facebook.com/RDH4Senate/
Campaigns cost money! We need it! Ricky is in it to WIN, and advance Liberty in the US. His winning Arkansas would propel the liberty movement and the 3rd party movement forward light years!! Please consider donating!
https://www.rickyharringtonsenate.com/give
https://www.rickyharringtonsenate.com/give
https://www.rickyharringtonsenate.com/give
Thank you for your time! Let's get to work!
Edit 1: Added a selection of media coverage of Ricky at 9/18/2020 at 4:41pm CST