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Baxter County voters will have five days to cast early ballots ahead of the March 31 preferential primary runoff, with early voting opening March 24 at First United Methodist Church in Mountain Home.
The runoff will settle two Republican races, including the contest for Baxter County sheriff between Brian Davis and Mark Hollingsworth. The two advanced out of the March 11 primary after neither candidate secured enough votes to win the nomination outright. With no Democratic opposition in November, the March 31 runoff is effectively the general election for the office.
The two candidates present sharply different profiles. Hollingsworth spent 35 years with the Arkansas State Police, retiring in 2021 as a major and commander of the statewide Criminal Investigation Division. He oversaw six CID companies, the Special Investigations Unit, the Arkansas State Fusion Center, the Cold Case Unit, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Digital Evidence Laboratory. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and currently serves as chief deputy at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. He also served more than 20 years in the Arkansas Army National Guard, including a 2008 deployment to Iraq.
Davis has spent 15 years at the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and carries the public endorsement of retiring Sheriff John Montgomery, who announced last year he would not seek re-election after more than two decades leading the office. Before coming to Baxter County, Davis spent nearly two decades with the Forrest City Police Department, rising to CID lieutenant and second-in-command of a department overseeing approximately 45 employees and a $2.6 million budget. He has 34 years of total law enforcement experience.
The two candidates have staked out different positions on several key issues. Both said they support adopting body-worn cameras, which the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office does not currently use, though they diverged on cost and implementation. Hollingsworth said his experience rolling out a body camera program at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office through a five-year contract with Axon gave him a clear picture of what it costs, putting the price for 21 deputies at just under $15,000 per year including cloud storage, training and equipment. Davis said cameras would come under his administration but acknowledged the cost would be significant, citing storage expenses and the potential need for additional staff to manage footage.
The sharpest contrast between the two came on the question of moving sheriff’s office dispatch operations to the county’s 911 center. Davis was firmly opposed, arguing dispatchers would lose accountability if removed from the sheriff’s direct control and noting they are dual-trained as jailers, paid through the jail’s dedicated tax revenue. Moving them, he said, would require replacing jailers and shifting salaries to a different funding source.
“Let’s don’t get rid of safety concerns, and let’s don’t get rid of our response time because we’re wondering who’s going to be making the calls,” Davis said during a candidate forum held earlier this year.
Hollingsworth said he supported exploring consolidation, calling the current arrangement where dispatchers operate out of the detention center “pretty problematic.”
Both candidates identified drugs and theft as the county’s most pressing criminal concerns. Davis pledged to maintain an aggressive drug enforcement posture. Hollingsworth noted that roughly 40 percent of theft cases are tied to substance abuse and said crimes against children and growing cybercrime issues also warranted attention.
Hollingsworth said voters have raised the same concerns throughout the campaign.
“What they want is accountability and transparency,” he said, adding that body-worn cameras came up in nearly every conversation as the most visible symbol of that demand. “That’s kind of the key to transparency in a lot of agencies.”
Davis, who finished second in the March 11 primary behind Hollingsworth, said he is not discouraged by the deficit heading into the runoff.
“I was a little disappointed in some of the numbers, but I think we can come back and make it happen. I’m not worried about it,” Davis said on primary night. “I need your help again. Come back for the runoff election and vote again.”
Early voting runs Tuesday through Friday, March 24-27, and again Monday, March 30, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day at First United Methodist Church, 605 W. 6th St. in Mountain Home.
Election Day is Tuesday, March 31. Polls open at 7:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. Baxter County voters may cast their ballots at any of 11 vote centers across the county, including the Baxter County Training Center in Midway, East Side Baptist Church and First United Methodist Church in Mountain Home, the Lakeview Civic Center, Norfork First Baptist Church, The Good Shepherd Methodist Church in Cotter, and several other locations.
The runoff ballot also includes the Republican race for secretary of state between Bryan Norris and Sen. Kim Hammer.
Unofficial results will be compiled and published beginning at 7:30 p.m. March 31 at the Baxter County Courthouse, 1 E. 7th St. Election certification is scheduled for April 10.
Voters who wish to cast an absentee ballot may contact the Baxter County Clerk’s office at 1 E. 7th St., Suite 103, by phone at (870) 425-3475 or (870) 580-5602, or by email at [email protected]. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sample ballots are available at voterview.ar-nova.org/voterview.
