The only Democratic Senate candidate in Arkansas dropped out of the 2020 race less than one day after the filing deadline.
Josh Mahony, a nonprofit executive, was the sole Democrat running against Republican incumbent Sen. Tom Cotton. Mahony announced on Tuesday that he was dropping out because of a “family health concern.”
In a statement posted to Twitter, Mahony commented on his withdrawal from the race and thanked his supporters.
“It has been the honor of my life to be able to meet and visit with so many Arkansans over the last six months and hear their voices,” he said. “It was my sincere hope to be their advocate in Washington, D.C. However, in this moment right now, I need to focus on my family and place their interests first.”
For Immediate Release: pic.twitter.com/ZzBArzgLxb
— Josh Mahony (@joshuamahony) November 12, 2019
Mahony raised around $250,000 to fund his bid against Cotton, but it was still unlikely that he would have won. Cotton easily beat his 2014 competitor, former Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, and Mahony’s only other campaign experience was a failed 2018 congressional bid in which he earned half as many votes as his competitor, Rep. Steve Womack, Republican of Arkansas.
The timing of Mahony’s drop out of the race couldn’t be worse for Democrats as the filing deadline to run in 2020 passed on Monday. Michael John Gray, Democratic Party of Arkansas chairman, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he learned Mahony had withdrawn when someone sent him the tweeted statement. Gray noted that he’s in talks with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office to see if the party can get another candidate on the ballot, despite the deadline.
Arkansas has the earliest filing deadline in the country, forcing undecided candidates like Michael Bloomberg to file before announcing an official presidential bid.
