Asa Hutchinson has been elected to his second term as Arkansas governor.
He was running against Democratic candidate Jared Henderson and Libertarian candidate Mark West for the seat in 2018.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial results showed Hutchinson taking the lead with 65 percent of the vote, followed by Henderson at 32 percent and West at 3 percent.
Hutchinson is a former congressman and federal Homeland Security official who was first elected to office in 2014. In his first term, Hutchinson claimed to work toward cutting taxes, creating jobs, transforming government and improving education.
Leading up to the election, he said the state needs to focus on raising the starting pay for teachers, continuing to improve the education system and creating better paying jobs in the future.
Henderson had criticized Hutchinson over the state’s requirement that some on the state’s expanded Medicaid program work or lose their coverage. Nearly 8,500 have been kicked off the program for not meeting the requirement.
In the latest Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll, published October 22, Gov. Hutchinson took the lead among those polled, pulling 60 percent of the vote.
