Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman has defeated Democrat Natalie James, Fox News declared Tuesday evening, less than a minute after the 7:30 p.m. closing of the polls.
The Associated Press has also projected Boozman as the winner. As of 7:40 p.m., only one percent of the vote was in, AP said.
[ELECTION 2022: Get live updates on Arkansas election results » nwavote.com]
The former optometrist from Rogers is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate. He previously served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented the voters of Arkansas’ third congressional district.
Boozman, who also faced Libertarian Kenneth Cates, is already Arkansas’s longest-serving Republican U.S. senator.
He is the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee and had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.