DARDANELLE, Ark. — First-term Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton announced Tuesday he's challenging Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, accusing the incumbent of representing President Barack Obama more than Arkansas as they geared up for a costly and heated election fight.
The 36-year-old Cotton, a former management consultant who served in the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, was elected in November to represent Arkansas' 4th Congressional District that stretches across the western and southern parts of the state. Pryor was first elected to the Senate in 2002.
"I'm running because I think Arkansas deserves a senator who stands with them and not with Barack Obama," Cotton told The Associated Press before his announcement speech.
Pryor is the only Democrat in the state's Washington delegation after Republicans made major gains in the state over the past two elections. The GOP won control of the state Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction in the November election, and swept all four of the state's U.S. House seats.
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