Republican Tom Cotton has beaten incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor in Arkansas’s U.S. Senate race, Fox News projects.
Cotton, a first-term member of the House of Representatives, is also an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the first veteran of those wars to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Pryor was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and was reelected with no opponent in 2008. His father, David Pryor, once held the Senate seat Cotton has now won.
The GOP has also won the governorship in Arkansas, with Republican Asa Hutchison beating Democrat Mike Ross. Hutchison will succeed two-term Democrat Mike Beebe.
Arkansas Republicans will now control both U.S. Senate seats, the governoship, and all four House seats for the first time in the state’s history.
Ken Tomlinson wrote about Cotton in 2011 for THE WEEKLY STANDARD, a year before the Republican’s first political campaign for the House:
Cotton was walking out of a law school class when he learned terrorists had struck the World Trade Center. A world of legal wealth and prestige lay before him, but inside he sensed he soon would be going to war.
Those who know Cotton well are struck by his systematic demeanor, which leads him to lay plans before acting. He had obligations to fulfill before he could volunteer for Army service. He had committed to clerk for a federal appellate judge. Then he went into private practice to pay off his student loans. An Army friend wrote him from Iraq not to worry. “I’m afraid the war will still be on by the time you can get here.”
It was.
The Army recruiter examined his record and began explaining that Cotton, given his credentials, would qualify for a nice job with the rank of captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
Cotton politely interrupted. “I don’t think you understand. I’m here to volunteer for the infantry.”
And seven years ago, Dean Barnett included Cotton in his TWS essay on the 9/11 Generation:
The platoon he led was composed of men who had already been in Baghdad for five months. Cotton knew that a new platoon leader normally undergoes a period of testing from his men. Because his platoon was patrolling “outside the wire” every day, there was no time for Cotton and his men to have such a spell. He credits what turned out to be a smooth transition to his platoon’s noncommissioned officers, saying, “The troops really belong to the NCOs.” After six months, Cotton and his platoon redeployed stateside.
While in Iraq, Cotton’s platoon was awarded two Purple Hearts, but suffered no killed in action. His larger unit, however, did suffer a KIA. When I asked Cotton for his feelings about that soldier’s death, the pain in his voice was evident. After searching for words, he described it as “sad, frustrating, angry–very hard, very hard on the entire company.”
He then added some thoughts. “As painful as it was, the death didn’t hurt morale,” he said. “That’s something that would have surprised me before I joined the Army. Everyone in the Infantry has volunteered twice–once for the Army, once for the Infantry. These are all grown men who all made the decision to face the enemy on his turf. The least you can do is respect them and what they’re doing.”
