Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, has declared the Arkansas Senate District 26 seat vacant following the death of Gary Stubblefield earlier this month, clearing the way for a special election to fill the position.
Sanders on Monday notified Joseph Wood, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, and Marcus Jones, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, to certify the vacancy, according to a news release from her office.
Each party has 10 days to inform Sanders or her chief legal counsel, Cortney Kennedy, whether it will hold a primary election or a convention of delegates to select a candidate, the release said.
Stubblefield, a Republican from Branch, died Sept. 2 at age 74. He served 12 years in the Senate and four years in the Arkansas House of Representatives. He lay in state at the Capitol on Thursday and was buried Saturday in Charleston.
Senate District 26 includes parts of Franklin County, Johnson County, Logan County and Sebastian County. Stubblefield was reelected last year to a term set to end in 2029.
The most recent special election for the Arkansas Legislature occurred in February 2022, when Colby Fulfer narrowly defeated Lisa Parks to represent a portion of Northwest Arkansas. Both parties held primaries before the general election.
Fulfer succeeded Lance Eads, who resigned from the Senate in October 2021 to take a position with a consulting firm. Fulfer left the Senate at the end of Eads’ term in 2023.
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