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FIRST ON FOX: As he faces primary challengers in his run for re-election this year, Sen. John Boozman is getting a helping hand from a high-profile fellow Arkansas Republican.
Sen. Tom Cotton calls Arkansas’ senior senator “our conservative fighter,” while starring in Boozman’s latest campaign commercial, which was shared first with Fox News Friday.
“In the Army, we depended on our brothers. In Washington, I depend on John Boozman. We work as a team, agreeing on nearly every vote,” Cotton, an Army veteran who served in combat in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, says in the ad.
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Cotton, who’s built a large national profile during his years in Congress, emphasizes in the spot that “John Boozman fights to secure our border. Fights to protect the unborn. Fights to stop Biden’s crushing inflation.”
And pointing to former President Donald Trump, who remains the most popular and influential politician in the Republican Party, Cotton spotlights that Boozman “has my support and President Trump’s endorsement. I need you to join me in voting for John Boozman.”
Boozman’s campaign notes that this is the senator’s fourth commercial during his re-election bid and that the campaign is spending $340,000 in Arkansas’ relatively inexpensive media markets to run the new ad statewide, beginning Saturday on TV, digital and radio.
The campaign says it will continue to be “heavy and steady” with ad buys until the state’s May 24 primary.
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The senator is facing primary challenges from three other Republicans – former NFL player and U.S. Army veteran Jake Bequette, Pastor Heath Loftis and Jan Morgan, a gun range owner who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018. Fox News was first to report in January that a super PAC supporting Bequette purchased nearly $900,000 in TV airtime to run ads in support of Bequette.
Cotton endorsed Boozman last year, soon after the senator announced his re-election bid.
Sen. Tom Cotton stars in fellow Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman’s latest reelection campaign commercial
(Sen. John Boozman reelection campaign)
Besides the endorsements by Cotton and Trump, Boozman is also backed by former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The daughter of former longtime Arkansas governor and former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is the clear front-runner to win this year’s gubernatorial election in the state.
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations on Capitol Hill
(Patrick Semansky)
Boozman also enjoys high-profile endorsements from National Right to Life, the nation’s oldest and largest anti-abortion grassroots group; Arkansas Right to Life; and, most recently, the National Rifle Association.
“I’m grateful for the support of grassroots conservatives and leaders, including President Trump, Senator Cotton and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as well as thousands of Arkansans across the state,” Boozman said in a statement as he showcased his conservative credentials.
“These folks know and trust that I will always stand up to the radical left and fight for our shared values. That’s what Arkansans deserve, and it’s what they can continue to expect from me as their strong, conservative voice in the United States Senate.”
Boozman, first elected to the Senate in 2010 and easily re-elected in 2016, had a healthy $3.5 million cash on hand in his campaign coffers at the start of the year. That included a $5,000 contribution last year from Trump’s Save America political action committee, which came after Boozman’s primary opponents entered the race.
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The former president carried the deeply red state of Arkansas by 27 points in his 2016 White House victory and nearly 28 points in his 2020 re-election defeat.