Republican state Sen. Kim Hammer was projected to win Arkansas’ secretary of state election Tuesday, according to unofficial results from The Associated Press with an estimated 99% of votes counted.
Hammer led Democrat Kelly Grappe and Libertarian Michael Pakko in the race to succeed Secretary of State Cole Jester, a Republican. The unofficial AP tally showed Hammer with 490,330 votes, Grappe with 347,409 and Pakko with 40,162.
“Although at the time of this text, the race has not been called, a victory appears to be in sight,” Kim Hammer said in a statement at 10 p.m.
The secretary of state is Arkansas’ chief election official. The office also manages services for businesses and the grounds of the state Capitol. Hammer has served about 16 years in the General Assembly as a state representative and state senator, and he made that legislative experience a central part of his campaign.
The candidates and the office
Grappe, of Rose Bud, is an executive with Rock Dental Brands. Pakko, of Roland, is chief economist for the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Hammer is from Benton and has served in the Senate.
During the campaign, Hammer said he would visit schools to discuss voting and civic participation as part of an effort to address Arkansas’ low voter participation rate. He also said he would continue Jester’s work to streamline services for businesses.
- The secretary of state oversees Arkansas elections and election administration.
- The office provides services for businesses.
- The secretary of state is responsible for the state Capitol grounds.
Hammer sponsored legislation during the 2025 legislative session that added requirements to the process for placing constitutional amendments and other measures on the ballot. The laws required petition signers to show photo identification and affirm that they had read a ballot measure’s legal summary.
Hammer said the requirements were intended to prevent petition fraud and keep voters from being misled about the measures they were signing. A federal judge ruled earlier in 2026 that the laws were unconstitutional. Grappe criticized Hammer’s role in passing the legislation and said it restricted Arkansans’ ability to use the ballot-initiative process.
The AP projection was not a certification by Arkansas election officials. Hammer’s projected victory leaves him positioned to take over an office that administers elections and ballot procedures statewide after Jester’s term.
