2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas

The 2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Arkansas, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Arkansas, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor ran for re-election to a third term in office. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary; U.S. Representative Tom Cotton was also unopposed for the Republican nomination. While the race was initially expected to be close, Cotton prevailed by a margin of 56.5%-39.4%. The Associated Press called the race for Cotton immediately after the polls closed. This marked the first time since Reconstruction in 1877 that Republicans held both Senate seats in Arkansas, and the Arkansas congressional delegation was entirely Republican. Pryor drew many comparisons to Blanche Lincoln, also a Democratic senator from Arkansas who was ultimately unseated in 2010, with Pryor receiving a similar fate.

Elected at age 37, Cotton surpassed Connecticut's Chris Murphy as the youngest incumbent senator at that time and remained so until the seating of Missouri’s Josh Hawley at the opening of the 116th United States Congress.

Background
Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor was first elected to the Senate in 2002, defeating first-term Republican incumbent Tim Hutchinson. He was re-elected with 80% of the vote in 2008 as he was unopposed by a Republican candidate. He faced competition only from Green Party nominee Rebekah Kennedy, who won the largest share of the vote of any Green Party candidate in a Senate race in history. Of the 88 previous occasions when an incumbent senator was re-elected without major party opposition and then went on to contest the following general election, all 88 were re-elected.

Heading into the 2014 Cotton vs. Pryor matchup, only 17 House freshmen had been elected to the U.S. Senate over the last century, and just two in the last 40 years. In the 2014 cycle, Cotton and Montana's Steve Daines became the 18th and 19th freshmen to win U.S. Senate races since 1914.

The election was originally thought to be extremely close- a claim backed up by polling, but Tom Cotton ended up winning in a landslide against the incumbent, by 17.1 points.

Democratic primary
Pryor was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Declared

 * Mark Pryor, incumbent U.S. Senator

Declined

 * Bobby Tullis, former state representative

Republican primary
Cotton was unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Declared

 * Tom Cotton, U.S. Representative

Declined

 * Rick Crawford, U.S. Representative
 * Mark Darr, Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas
 * Timothy Griffin, U.S. Representative
 * Steve Womack, U.S. Representative

Declared

 * Nathan LaFrance (Libertarian), energy executive
 * Mark Swaney (Green), mechanical engineer and nominee for the state house in 2010

Debates

 * Complete video of debate, October 13, 2014

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
• Craighead (Largest city: Jonesboro)

• Cross (Largest city: Wynne)

• Greene (Largest city: Paragould)

• Hot Spring (Largest city: Malvern)

• Izard (Largest city: Horseshoe Bend)

• Arkansas (Largest city: Stuttgart)

• Calhoun (Largest city: Hampton)

• Cleburne (Largest city: Heber Springs)

• Cleveland (Largest city: Rison)

• Columbia (Largest city: Magnolia)

• Conway (Largest city: Morrilton)

• Faulkner (Largest city: Conway)

• Franklin (Largest city: Ozark)

• Fulton (Largest city: Salem)

• Garland (Largest city: Hot Springs)

• Grant (Largest city: Sheridan)

• Independence (Largest city: Batesville)

• Johnson (Largest city: Clarksville)

• Logan (Largest city: Booneville)

• Lonoke (Largest city: Cabot)

• Madison (Largest city: Huntsville)

• Marion (Largest city: Bull Shoals)

• Miller (Largest city: Texarkana)

• Montgomery (Largest city: Mount Ida)

• Perry (Largest city: Perryville)

• Pike (Largest city: Glenwood)

• Pope (Largest city: Russellville)

• Prairie (Largest city: Des Arc)

• Saline (Largest city: Benton)

• Scott (Largest city: Waldron)

• Sevier (Largest city: De Queen)

• Sharp (Largest city: Cherokee Village)

• Stone (Largest city: Mountain View)

• Union (Largest city: El Dorado)

• Van Buren (Largest city: Clinton)

• Washington (Largest city: Fayetteville)

• White (Largest city: Searcy)

• Yell (Largest city: Dardanelle)

• Baxter (Largest city: Mountain Home)

• Boone (Largest city: Harrison)

• Carroll (Largest city: Berryville)

• Newton (Largest city: Jasper)

• Polk (Largest city: Mena)

• Benton (Largest city: Rogers)

• Crawford (Largest city: Van Buren)

• Searcy (Largest city: Marshall)

• Sebastian (Largest city: Fort Smith)

• Clay (largest city: Piggott)

• Hempstead (largest city: Hope)

• Lawrence (largest city: Walnut Ridge)

• Poinsett (largest city: Harrisburg)

• Randolph (largest city: Pocahontas)

• Drew (Largest city: Monticello)

• Ashley (Largest city: Crossett)

• Lafayette (Largest city: Stamps)

• Nevada (Largest city: Prescott)

• Dallas (Largest city: Fordyce)

• Bradley (largest city: Warren)

• Jackson (largest city: Newport)

• Lincoln (largest city: Star City)

• Little River (largest city: Ashdown)

• Howard (Largest city: Nashville)