9 Arkansas legislative races to watch in midterm election

Republicans are all but guaranteed to maintain their majority in both chambers of the Arkansas Legislature in 2027, with most sitting GOP House members and several of the party’s senators unopposed or not on the ballot.

To break the Republican supermajority of more than three-quarters needed in each chamber to pass most budget bills, Democrats would need to flip three Senate seats and six House seats. That’s a tall order in a state where Republicans have led the Legislature and held all statewide offices for over a decade.

Just over a third of the 117 legislative races on the midterm ballots are contested. Some seats are undefended and some are in competitive regions such as northwest Arkansas and the Little Rock suburbs. A few contests feature candidates who have run before and lost, and others include former lawmakers seeking reelection, some in different or redrawn districts.

One Senate race won’t be decided until Dec. 15, when voters in White County and parts of Faulkner and Cleburne counties will choose former Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang’s successor in a special election.

Here’s a look at nine interesting legislative matchups:

House District 67

Voters in parts of Jacksonville and Sherwood will see a rematch between six-term Republican Rep. Karilyn Brown and Democrat Andrew Cade Eberly.

Brown defeated Eberly by 559 votes in 2024. Her campaign website states that she supports lowering taxes and is “a champion for students and teachers.”

Eberly, an Army veteran and cybersecurity professional, is vice chair of the Pulaski County Democratic Party. Among his priorities are “when someone in Jacksonville has a medical emergency, help is close enough to save their life,” according to his campaign website.

Jacksonville’s only hospital, Unity Health, closed its emergency room and medical-surgical unit in April, partly due to low insurance reimbursement rates, an issue leading hospitals statewide to downsize.

House District 55

Democrat Cynthia Nations is challenging two-term Republican Rep. Matt Brown in a rematch of their 2024 race.

House District 55 encompasses part of Faulkner County, including a portion of Conway, where both candidates live. Brown won this district in 2024 with nearly 59% of the vote.

Nations, a retired Conway Public Schools teacher, has the support of the Arkansas Education Association and is running on the idea that “public money should stay in our public schools.” 

Brown was one of the 78 members of the House who voted for the LEARNS Act of 2023, which established Educational Freedom Accounts, Arkansas’ universal school voucher program.

Senate District 13

Allison Grigsby Sweatman, a social worker and former president of the Young Democrats of Arkansas, is running a second time for the Senate seat covering North Little Rock, Sherwood, Maumelle and Jacksonville.

Sweatman faces two-term GOP Rep. Brandon Achor of Maumelle, a pharmacist who consistently champions policies to make prescription medication more affordable.

The two are running to replace term-limited Republican Sen. Jane English, who defeated Sweatman in the 2022 election.

Achor was among the dozens of GOP lawmakers who sponsored the LEARNS Act, and his campaign website reiterates his support for the school voucher program.

Sweatman has been a vocal opponent of school vouchers, and her website states that she supports accountability for the use of public money and an income cap on voucher recipients.

Achor has also supported ongoing efforts to phase out the state’s income tax. A banner at the top of his campaign site says, “Allison Sweatman opposed cutting your taxes!”

House District 71

Democrat Cassandra Mayes and Republican Stephen Bright are running for the Maumelle House district seat currently held by Achor. 

Mayes is an educational consultant who worked for the Little Rock School District from 2016 to 2025. In June, she called for Maumelle schools to split from the Pulaski County Special School District, which was embroiled in a desegregation court case for decades.

Bright was in the House from 2003 to 2011 and is running to represent Maumelle again. He currently chairs the Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission, part of the secretary of state’s office.

Bright’s approach to education policy, according to his campaign website, includes bolstering trade schools and “teaching students and educators how to use AI responsibly and effectively.”

In September, Mayes alleged that Bright has not lived in Maumelle since 2008 despite maintaining Maumelle voter registration and consistently voting there.

Bright refuted Mayes’ allegations of voter fraud to KATV, saying that not changing his registration was “a simple oversight during a move” to Little Rock and that his registration became accurate again when he moved back to Maumelle.

House District 45

Five-term Republican Rep. Aaron Pilkington faces former Rep. Debra Hobbs, an independent running to reclaim a spot in Arkansas’ Legislature.

Pilkington, of Knoxville, was first elected in 2016. He is a regular advocate of expanding Medicaid to cover mothers for 12 months postpartum, and is also a supporter of data center projects that have become controversial in the state. 

Pilkington’s support of data centers has been a target of criticism from Hobbs, who served in the House as a Republican representing a northwest Arkansas district.

Hobbs departed the House more than a decade ago due to term limits. She ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 2014 and tried to reclaim her old House seat in 2016. She later moved to Johnson County. 

Clarksville, which is located in the district, has pushed back against a $6.6 billion data center being built next door to its local hospital. Clarksville’s city council approved a measure to issue up to $55 billion in industrial revenue bonds to support the project earlier this year, despite objections from many in the community. 

Hobbs led efforts to place the bonds on the ballot, and the matter is scheduled for a special election in December — likely marking the first time anything related to data centers appears on the ballot in Arkansas.

House District 24

Charlene Fite, a former Republican House member from Van Buren, is looking to regain her seat after her predecessor, Republican Rep. Brad Hall, dropped out of the race after being accused of domestic violence by his wife. Democrat Ryan Intchauspe is running for a second time to represent the district, which includes portions of Crawford and Washington counties. 

Fite, a retired school psychology specialist, served six terms in the House before stepping down in 2025. During her time in the Legislature, she sponsored laws related to deaf individuals, human trafficking and child sex victims.

Intchauspe, a Navy veteran, is focused on “raising wages for working families, improving public education, expanding access to healthcare, supporting veterans, and holding government accountable to the people,” according to his campaign site.

House District 9

Democratic Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen is seeking a second term in office representing the state’s only Hispanic-majority district. The longtime educator and granddaughter of Mexican immigrants flipped the east Springdale seat in 2024, and will be challenged in November by Republican Matt Goff.

Gonzales Worthen said she’s running for reelection because the community deserves a representative “who is focused on us, not extreme policies that hurt our schools, businesses, and families.”

Goff is an Army veteran who runs his own business and participates in disaster relief missions with various organizations, according to his campaign site. If elected, Goff said he would prioritize law enforcement and first responders, “quality education without indoctrination,” veteran support, affordable housing and small business success.

House District 32

Rep. Jack Ladyman, a Republican from Jonesboro, is seeking a seventh term in House District 32, facing a challenge from Democrat Erika Askeland.

The district covers Jonesboro in Craighead County. Askeland ran against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2024 and came away with 39.1% of the vote. Ladyman, a mechanical engineer and former mayor of Elkins, won 58.6% of the vote in 2024, facing Democrat David McAvoy and Libertarian Eric I.B. McGee.

Askeland, a public school teacher, is running on a platform of improving public schools, fighting hunger and “protecting our tax dollars,” according to her website.

Ladyman has been an advocate for the state’s human development centers, which serve people with severe disabilities, and has said he would introduce legislation next year to fund a long-dormant atomic coordinator position within the state government.

Senate District 9

After serving one term in a House seat he won by 123 votes, Democratic Rep. Jessie McGruder is vying for the open Senate District 9 seat against Republican Kenny Phillips. Sen. Reginald Murdock, a term-limited Democrat, previously represented the east Arkansas district and is running for mayor of Marianna.   

McGruder, a West Memphis School District coach, sponsored a 2025 law that requires an early voting location in cities with more than 15,000 residents. He proposed the legislation in response to a legal battle over early voting in his district. McGruder promised to fight for policies that promote economic growth, education, supporting veterans and investing in community enrichment programs if elected. 

Phillips is a small business owner who serves as the Marion School District’s transportation director. Phillips said he would fight for election integrity, support local schools, back law enforcement and support expanding veteran benefits. The Republican candidate said he would also work to bring economic development and infrastructure improvements to the district.