Republican John Boozman is Arkansas’ new junior senator, having ousted two-term Democrat Blanche Lincoln in 2010 by the largest majority of any Senate challenger over a defeated incumbent. Read More

Republican John Boozman is Arkansas’ new junior senator, having ousted two-term Democrat Blanche Lincoln in 2010 by the largest majority of any Senate challenger over a defeated incumbent.

Boozman (BOZ-man) was born in Shreveport, La., but grew up in Fort Smith, Ark., the state’s second-largest city. He credits his upbringing—his father was Air Force Master Sgt. Fay Boozman Jr.—for his appreciation of the issues that military families face. Boozman graduated from Northside High School in Fort Smith and attended the University of Arkansas, where he played football. He left college after completing his pre-optometry requirements and went on to graduate from the Southern College of Optometry in 1977.

He opened the Boozman Eye Clinic in Rogers, Ark., with his brother, Fay Boozman, an ophthalmologist. The brothers merged with another eye clinic in 1981 to form the Boozman-Hof Regional Eye Clinic. Boozman also established a low-vision program for the Arkansas School for the Blind. His first public office was a seat on the Rogers Board of Education in 1994. He served until 2001, when he won a November special election to succeed Republican Rep. Asa Hutchinson, who vacated the seat to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Boozman was easily re-elected every two years in the reliably conservative 3rd District, which contains Bentonville, the home of Wal-Mart Stores’ corporate headquarters. He compiled a conservative voting record, opposing a bill to impose caps on carbon emissions, the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill, and the health care overhaul. He broke with his party by favoring the end of the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba. During the Bush administration, Boozman voted in favor of the 2008 bill rescuing the U.S. financial system, a vote that tea party supporters used in other Republican primaries to blast incumbents. Previously, he opposed President Bush’s attempt at comprehensive immigration legislation, which included a pathway to legal residency for illegal immigrants.

Boozman entered the 2010 Senate race in February, ending months of speculation and forcing Lincoln to run against a Boozman for the second time. Fay Boozman, then a state senator, was her opponent when she first ran for the Senate in 1998. Lincoln won that contest, 55% to 42%. Fay, a close friend of then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, went on to become director of the Arkansas Health Department. He was killed in a barn collapse in 2005.

In the primary season, Lincoln got bogged down in a bruising fight with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, which she barely won. She pressed the importance of her role as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee for a state reliant on farming. She also tried to distance herself from Obama and the Democratic Party, noting her opposition to the carbon emissions bill and her support for cutting estate tax rates. Halter spent nearly $3 million on his campaign, forcing Lincoln to drain $7 million from her re-election fund. He managed to hold her to 45% of the vote to his 42%, which, because neither one hit 50%, forced the two into a runoff the following month. She won the runoff 52%-48%.

Meanwhile, Boozman topped an eight-candidate GOP primary in June with 53%, avoiding a runoff of his own. Not only was he the best known of the candidates running, he benefited from the fact that his congressional district was home to the largest share of Republican voters in the state. Tea party supporters were unhappy with his vote for the financial sector rescue, but his credibility with that group was bolstered by an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party favorite.

In the fall campaign against Boozman, Lincoln again stressed her role as chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee and she criticized Boozman for agreeing to a House GOP moratorium on earmarked spending. Boozman painted Lincoln as insufficiently conservative for Arkansas, and frequently mentioned his endorsements from the National Rifle Association and Arkansas Right to Life. He hammered Lincoln for her vote for the health care overhaul, which he said he would work to repeal. “I listened to your concerns on ‘Obamacare,’ fought for you in Washington, and voted against this bill,” Boozman said. “But the Senate has let you down. Arkansas did not have a voice in that chamber willing to stand up to” Obama and congressional Democratic leaders. Boozman also slammed Lincoln for voting for Obama’s economic stimulus bill. And he said he would not only vote to extend the expiring tax cuts enacted under Bush, he would consider additional tax cuts as well.

Arkansas’ political trends were in Boozman’s favor. The state had voted Republican in the two previous presidential elections, and two open House seats held by retiring Democrats also went Republican in 2010. Boozman maintained a double-digit lead in polls from the outset. To offset Lincoln’s emphasis on her chairmanship, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised Boozman a seat on the panel. On Election Day, he prevailed with 58%, winning over independents by nearly 2-to-1, as well as older voters. Lincoln carried only 14 counties to Boozman’s 61, and she won only nine of the 26 counties in the 1st District, which she once represented, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Boozman’s strongest showing was in his home of Benton County and his boyhood home of Sebastian County, where his share of the vote topped 70%.