Arkansas Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor ran for re-election unopposed in 2008. At that time, as far as the Senate was concerned, Arkansas was a one-party Democratic state; there had been exactly one Republican in the U.S. Senate from Arkansas since Reconstruction. Pryor, son of Arkansas senator and governor David Pryor, seemed set to spend decades in Washington.

Now, however, Arkansas has made a rapid change from blue to red, and Pryor is in the fight of his life, running behind Republican challenger Rep. Tom Cotton. And one thing that comes with a competitive race is a certain amount of questioning from the press. It’s something for which Pryor, given his background in a virtually all-Democratic state, doesn’t seem entirely prepared to handle. On Monday, as he campaigned with former President Bill Clinton, Pryor seemed completely flummoxed when asked simple questions about his campaign’s own ads and claims.