Trump regains presidency, state and local races decided

Democrats poised to hold local state House seats in tight race

By Ralph Hardin

news@theeveningtimes.com

While some states are still getting a final tabulation of Tuesday’s vote, it is clear that former president Donad Trump will be returning to the White House next January — just the second person to ever lose and then regain the presidency (Grover Cleveland was the other).

Trump is expected to accrue about 312 electoral votes, to Vice President Kamala Harris’s 226. Trump also carried the popular vote, with more than 71 million votes to Harris’s 67 million (or 51% to 48% nationally).

Trump’s key to victory was a sweep of all seven states considered “in play” in 2024 — Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.

Locally, more than 14,000 voters cast their ballots in Crittenden County for the 2024 General Election. Here are the results from Crittenden County:

•Peter Sonski / Lauren Onak (American Solidarity Party) 13

•Kamala D. Harris / Tim Walz (Democratic Party) – 7341

•Jill Stein /Rudolph Ware (Green Party) – 40

• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. / Nicole Shanahan (Independent) – 163

• Chase Oliver / Mike Maat (Libertarian Party) – 56

• Michael Wood / John G.

Pietrowski (Prohibition Party) – 18

• Donald J. Trump / J.D.

Vance – Republican Party 7011 No surprise that Trump and Harris dominated the third party contenders, with Harris outpolling Trump by a few hundred votes. Crittenden County was one of the few places in Arkansas that Harris saw significant support. Of the roughly 1.5 million votes cast for U.S. president in the state, nearly 65% were for Trump, whild Harris managed just 33.6% of the vote in Arkansas. The “red wave” continued across the state.

U.S. Congress District 1

• Rodney Govens (Democratic Party) -6833

• Steve G. Parsons (Libertarian Party) – 355

• Congressman Rick Crawford (Republican Party) 7053 Crittenden County voters went along with the rest of U.S. House AR-1 voters, giving Congressman Crawford another two years in the U.S. House of Representatives with 72% of the 261,000 votes cast in the race.

State Treasurer

• John Pagan (Democratic Party) – 6782

• Michael Pakko (Libertarian Party) – 370

• John Thurston (Republican Party) 7137 While the tally was close in Crittenden County, Thurston enjoyed wide support across the state, with 65% of the vote across Arkansas. Thurston’s election will create a vacancy in the state government, as he is currently the Secretary of State. A special election is likely next year to fill that vacancy.

There were few races in Arkansas that drew as much attention as the two open seats

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in the two House positions that include Crittenden County (neither State Rep. Milton Nicks nor State Rep. Deborah Ferguson sought re-election).

• Jessie McGruder (Democratic Party) – 4526

• Robert Thorne, Jr. (Republican Party) – 4552 Crittenden County voters narrowly chose Thorne, but once the votes from the entirety of District 35 (which includes parts of Cross and St. Francis counties) were counted, McGruder edged ahead to win the seat 4798 to 4678 unofficially.

State Representative District 63

• Lincoln Barnett (Democratic Party) – 2708

• Tammi Northcutt Bell (Republican Party) 2704 Again, the Crittenden County votes narrowly went the way of the GOP candidate, but combined with the votes from the remainder of District 63 (which includes parts of St. Francis County), Lincoln Barnett was able to claim the seat. Barnett’s election will create a vacancy in the local political scene, as he currently serves as the mayor of Hughes.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Position 1

• Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood – 5371

• Karen Baker – 8010 Crittenden County voters aligned with the rest of the state, giving the win to Judge Baker, who polled 53% of the statewide vote to win.

There were two ballot issues for voters to weigh in on in Tuesday’s election, with both measured being passed.

Ballot Issue No. 1 (To expand the use of Lottery Proceeds to Vocational & Tech Schools)

• For – 12893

• Against – 1408 Like in Crittenden County, voters across the state voted overwhelmingly to allow vocational and trade school attendees to receive Arkansas Lottery Scholarship funds. The statewide vote was 89% to 11% in favor of the measure.

Ballot Issue No. 2 (To Require Local Voter Approval for Casino Licenses) • For – 7787

• Against – 6352 Voters statewide joined with Crittenden County voters in allowing county voters where proposed casino licenses may be issued to vote on whether or not to allow the casino to be built.

Ballot Issue No. 3 (Expansion of Medical Marijuana in Arkansas Votes for Issue No. 3 were not tallied due to the Arkansas Supreme Court striking the issue from the ballot. Backers have already said they will make another attempt at similar legislation in the next election cycle.

The rest of the ballot was filled with municipal races across the county.

West Memphis City Council Seat 1-2

• Tracy Catt – 1227

• Jessica Burns – 215

• Alfreda Robinson – 641 Catt, the incumbent, easily outpolled both of his challengers.

West Memphis City Council Seat 2-2

• City Councilwoman Melanie Hutchinson was unopposed in her bid to remain on the council.

West Memphis City Council Seat 3-2

• Wayne Croom – 912

• Joseph Tucker Jr. – 352 Croom was re-elected by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

West Memphis City Council Seat 4-2

• David Murray – 440

• Ttyrone McWright – 425 In the tightest of the West Memphis council races, Murray was reelected with 15 more votes than former Quorum Court Justice McWright.

West Memphis City Council Seat 5-2

• Willis Mondy – 401

• Al Felton – 272 Mondy, the incumbent earned another term with a decisive win.

West Memphis voters were also asked to weigh in on a number of ballot

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measures regarding city finances.

• For – 2544

• Against – 3562 Voters rejected a proposed quartercent sales tax increase that would have offset some of the cost of the numerous bond issues listed below.

WM Bond (Police Improvement)

• For – 3441

• Against – 2585

WM Bond (Fire Improvement)

• For – 3889

• Against – 2186

WM Bond (Drainage Improvement)

• For – 4413

• Against – 1659

WM Bond (Parks & Recreation)

• For – 3191

• Against – 2845 All four civic improvement bonds passed, paving the way for the city to continue its slate of renovations, upgrades and replacement of outdated municipal facilities and buildings.

Marion City Council Seat 1-1

• Kelsey Hensley – 2276

• Gene Hardin – 1340

• Austin Cates – 1280 Pending any major shifts in totals during the certification process, this race will require a runoff. Incumbent Hensley will face second-place finisher Hardin in the runoff after she fialed to garner more than 50% of the vote in the three-person race. The runoff, the only runoff in the county, will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 3, following a week of early voting.

Marion City Council Seat 2-1

• Cliff Wood – 2842

• Steve Stevens – 1927 The incumbent, Wood, outpolled his challenger by more than 900 votes out of 4700 votes cast to win re-election.

Marion City Council Seat 3-1

• Bryan Jackson – 3097

• Austin Smith – 1786 Jackson easily outpolled Smith to earn another term on the Marion City Council.

Marion Hotel Tax

• For – 2864

• Against – 2201 Marion voters supported an increase to the city’s hotel tax. The revenue generated from the tax will go toward parks improvements and upgrades.

The Crittenden County Quorum Court will have a pair of new justices of the peace following Tuesday’s elections.

Justice of the Peace District 8

• Thula Thomas – 793

• Sidney Hardin – 997 In the race for the open JP District 8 seat, Hardin outpolled Thomas by a little over 200 votes to win the seat on the quorum court being vacated by Robert Thorne Jr.

Justice of the Peace District 10

Jimmy Fraley – 812 Bradly Moore – 972 Incumbent JP Fraley was ousted in a tight race by Moore, who took the win by 160 votes in the unofficial tally.

There was a full slate of other municipal races in the county, with all but a handful of them being uncontested.

There were a few contested races.

Here are the results:

Anthonyville Position 4

• Roy Eason – 41

• KC McKinney – 5

Clarkedale Recorder/ Treasurer

• Candace Pirani – 132

• Karatha McWright – 20

Sunset Position 1

• Rickey Phelix – 23

• Floyd Williams – 39

Sunset Position 2

• Jerome Wray – 29

• Donella James – 36

Sunset Position 5

• Barbara Mathews – 27

• Barbara Moss – 36 All other races had uncontested candidates who were all automatically declared winners when county voters voted “For” all of the uncontested candidates.

All results are considered unofficial until certification of the ballots by the Crittenden County Election Commission, which is expected to happen at some point next week.

There are also approximately 150 provisional ballots that will be considered by the commission before certification that could affect some of these races.

Provisional ballots include: absentee ballots with incomplete information, ballots where the voter’s signature appears not to match the signature on file, ballots cast by voters at polling sites other than their listed polling place (such as a change of address not recorded since the previous election, and other contested ballots questioned by poll workers during early voting and on Election Day.

Voters who voted provisionally or whose ballots have been challenged will be informed and given an opportunity to appear before the Election Commission to provide proof that their vote was valid. If counted, the vote will be added to the official total prior to certification.

Voter turnout in the county was relatively high in 2024 compared to recentl election, with early voting seeing all-time record highs.

Voter turnout across the state was high as well, with 64.67% of state voters electing to cast ballots this election cycle.