Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed by members of own party for 'unacceptable' election plan

After pushback from members of her own party, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders late Friday changed the date of the general election to fill the vacant District 26 Senate seat from November 2026 to June.

The new general election date still comes after the end of the Legislature’s 2026 fiscal session, giving rise to complaints from Republicans and Democrats that citizens of the district will be unrepresented in next spring's legislative fiscal session

Republican candidate Ted Tritt of Paris posted on Facebook Saturday: “Any step to shorten the time our people go unrepresented is encouraging,” but the new date remains “unacceptable.”

Tritt is one of three Republicans who have announced their intent to run; the others are Brad Simon, also of Paris, and former state Rep. Mark Berry of Ozark. No Democrats have entered the race so far.

The special election is being called to replace Republican Sen. Gary Stubblefield, who died Sept. 2.

State law requires a special election be held not more than 150 days after a legislative seat becomes vacant, unless the governor determines it is “impracticable or unduly burdensome” to do so.

Tritt, Simon and Arkansas Democratic Party Chair, retired Army Col. Marcus Jones all criticized the election dates as unfair to residents of the district, which includes parts of Franklin, Johnson, Logan and Sebastian counties.

Stubblefield was a vocal opponent of a proposed 3,000-bed state prison in rural Franklin County supported by Sanders, and Simon and Tritt expressed concerns Friday that the area’s residents will be left without representation during likely discussions of prison funding in the fiscal session.

In her original and updated proclamations Friday, Sanders declared that holding the election within the 150-day window would be impractical and burdensome.

She originally set the special primary for the District 26 seat for March 3 and the general election for Nov. 3, 2026, dates which coincide with the state’s regular election schedule.

The revised election schedule kept the primary election on March 3, but moved the general election to June 9.

In a press release announcing the revised election dates, Sanders said that “after receiving feedback from the community and getting confirmation from election officials that a change while difficult is doable, I have decided to move up the general election date to expedite representation for the River Valley.”

Arkansas Democrats, in a Saturday press release, said Sanders is still “ignoring the law.”

“This is nothing but a bandaid to the serious bipartisan backlash she’s receiving, but she is still openly and scandalously defying Arkansas law,” Jones said in the release. “The Governor has a legal responsibility to fill this vacancy within 150 days, and the updated election date is still 130 days after that deadline.”

“This general election date still leaves more than 85,000 Arkansans without representation in the Senate for 280 days: not only does that take away their say in the 2026 budget, but that means there is no one to reach out to when they need resources or assistance from Arkansas’s highest legislative body,” Jones said.

Tritt wrote on Facebook that “the reality remains: District 26 will still go through the spring fiscal session without a senator and clock over 250 days without representation. That’s well beyond what the law calls for, and far beyond what our families deserve.”

“Budgets will be written. Priorities will be set. Votes on the Franklin County prison project will be taken. Decisions will be made that affect our schools, our hospitals, our farms, and our jobs. And through all of it, the people of District 26 will not have a seat at the table,” he said.

Simon posted on Facebook Friday that letting the seat remain vacant for so long is “unconscionable, unacceptable, and unconstitutional.”