Deffenbaugh, Blount win in key Crawford County races

story by Marla Cantrell
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It’s been decided.

Van Buren High School golf coach Gary Deffenbaugh will take on Crawford County assessor Dianna Faucher in the Arkansas District 66 Representative race in November.

Deffenbaugh defeated Van Buren attorney Kevin Holmes in the Republican primary Tuesday (May 18) with 66% of the vote. Holmes received only 719 votes to Deffenbaugh’s 1,426. Faucher ran unopposed on the Democratic ballot.

District 66 includes Van Buren, Dora and Kibler.

Deffenbaugh said he’s awed by the victory.

“I’m ecstatic but tired,” Deffenbaugh said. “It’s a humbling experience. It’s totally new to me. You never know what’s going to happen until it’s over and the final results are in. I learned that from coaching. I have a lot of respect for Kevin because I saw how hard he worked. I knew if I didn’t do my job, he’d win. I never doubted he could.”

Holmes said he’ll finish out his term on the Quorum Court, which ends Dec. 31, and then spend some time with his family. And although he hoped for a better outcome, he’s not ruling out political aspirations at some point in the future.

“I didn’t want to wake up in the morning and think I could have worked harder, hustled more, and I won’t,” Holmes said. “I did all those things but Deffenbaugh had such strong name recognition — he’s been a coach for 39 years. I think it came down to that.”

Newcomer Jill Gregory also faced defeat. She opposed Crawford County Circuit Clerk Sharon Blount in the Democratic primary. Blount garnered 61% of the vote. Gregory had 1,533 votes to Blount’s 2,358. Blount does not have a Republican opponent on the November ballot.

“I’m relieved and ready to get on with my third term.” Blount said. “My co-workers, staff, family and friends have been phenomenal. Today, I told myself I’d done everything I could. I watched my son play baseball. He hit a home run. Then I came here. Tomorrow, I plan to take the day off, maybe go for a drive. Then it’s back to work.”

Crawford County Clerk Teresa Armer said the night’s count of the 43 precincts was the smoothest she remembers since 1992. The unofficial tally showed 8,367 people voted in Crawford County.

“We had 1,801 early voters,” Armer said. “During the last primary we only had a few more than 3,000 total voters. … This beats the last two primaries hands down. We were steady throughout our early voting session this year. In fact, 406 voted on Monday (May 17), the last day of early voting.”

The unofficial count was completed before 11:00 p.m. Tuesday (May 18) night.