The race for the Republican nomination for Arkansas Secretary of State was a nail biter on Tuesday (March 31) as State Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, appeared to squeak out a close victory over Bryan Norris.

According to unofficial results from the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, Hammer had 40,876 votes (50.58%) to Norris’ 39,938 votes (49.42%).

In Prairie County, Hammer received 158 votes to Norris’ 90 votes.

The race was closely contested all night with just 92,124 of the state’s 1.796 million voters casting ballots in the GOP runoff.

If the results stand when certified, Hammer would face Democrat Kelly Grappe and Libertarian Michael Pakko in the fall general election.

There were no local runoff races in Prairie County on Tuesday.

Besides several House of Representatives and county offices on the ballot, the Secretary of State’s race was the only statewide runoff. Read more at our content partner, TalkBusiness.net, at this link.