Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, asks a question of a group opposed to a planned prison in Franklin County during a press conference in Little Rock on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo by Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders officially called a special election Friday to fill the seat of the late Sen. Gary Stubblefield, who died earlier this month.
The Republican from Branch represented Senate District 26, which encompasses parts of Franklin, Johnson, Logan and Sebastian Counties.
The special primary and general elections for the seat will be held on March 3 and Nov. 3 of next year, coinciding with the state’s regular midterm election schedule. If a candidate does not earn enough votes to win their party’s nomination outright, a special runoff election will be held March 31, 2026, the proclamation said.
State law requires that a special primary 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.
The candidacy filing period for the special election will begin on Nov. 3, 2025, and will close on Nov. 12 at noon. Following the primary, parties must certify their nominee for the general election by Aug. 5, 2026.
Three Republicans have announced their intentions to run as of Friday – businessmen Brad Simon and Ted Tritt, both of Paris, and former Rep. Mark Berry of Ozark. No Democrats have entered the race so far.
Simon and Tritt originally planned to run for the seat of term-limited Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, who represents House District 46. Three Republicans and no Democrats remain in the race for Eubanks’ seat.
Tritt immediately criticized the decision to hold the general election next November – after the state’s fiscal session in April.
“District 26 deserves to have a voice in every decision that impacts our families, our jobs, and our future,” Tritt wrote on Facebook. “To go through a fiscal session without full representation is simply unacceptable.”
Simon also opposed the delay on Facebook, calling it “unconscionable, unacceptable, and unconstitutional.”
State Democratic Party Chair Marcus Jones panned the scheduling decision as well, calling it “a middle finger to every voter in Senate District 26” while accusing Sanders of denying the 85,000 voters in the district a voice in government “for her own political gain.”
“Gov. Sanders didn’t just embrace taxation without representation today – she is weaponizing it against her most vocal and effective critics,” Jones said in a written statement. “This is a calculated abuse of power meant to silence the people who will be most affected by the proposed prison in Franklin County. Sanders is denying these voters a say in the 2026 budget, and it’s a disgrace.”
Both Tritt and Simon said they oppose plans for a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County, in line with Stubblefield, who was one of the most outspoken critics of the project since it was announced last year. Berry, a military veteran who declined to run again in 2024 after two terms in the House, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he felt it was possible to fund a prison while finding a more suitable location for it.
Both Tritt and Berry also stated their opposition to a potential immigration detention facility at the Franklin County site, after reports emerged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had visited the site Monday and were considering it as a place to hold migrants.
In addition to their positions on the prison, policy priorities for the three ranged from cutting taxes and protecting Second Amendment gun rights to helping rural hospitals, improving workforce development and education.
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