Colby Fulfer edges Lisa Parks in close State Senate special election
by February 8, 2022 9:44 pm 1,450 views
Republican Colby Fulfer edged Democrat Lisa Parks in a closely-contested special election to fill a vacancy in the District 7 Arkansas State Senate seat.
Former State Sen. Lance Eads, R-Springdale, resigned last year to take a private sector job.
Fulfer received 2,032 votes in Tuesday’s (Feb. 8) special election, while Parks garnered 1,998 votes. The final margin of victory gave Fulfer 50.42% of the vote to Parks’ 49.58%, according to unofficial election returns.
The 34-vote margin of victory will be examined closely by partisan political operatives. The Senate seat is considered a safe stronghold for Republicans, but Parks, the Democrat, made it a close race.
Fulfer defeated three primary candidates, including GOP challenger Steve Unger in a runoff, while Parks won her primary against Democrat Derek Van Voast.
Fulfer will serve out the remainder of Eads’ term, which ends in early January 2023. There will be a new election for the redrawn Senate District 7 seat later this year. Under the new district lines, most of the Senate seat will be in the newly formed District 31.