Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape won a close runoff election for State Representative from District 83. Slape got 1,382 votes to defeat Donald Ragland by just 44 votes Tuesday in the 2018 Preferential Primary Runoff Election. The results mean Slape will take over in January since there is no opposition in the general election in November.
Slape and Ragland were the top two vote getters in a three-person race in the Preferential Primary Election in May.
The two were seeking the seat previously held by Representative David Branscum who resigned in late 2017 to take a post with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Little Rock.
Ragland won a February special election to fill the vacant seat and was sworn in earlier this month.
District 83 covers most of Newton and Searcy counties, as well as parts of Boone and Carroll counties.
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