Little Rock, Arkansas —In one of the most historic elections in Arkansas’s political history, voters tonight elected Congressman Tom Cotton to the United States Senate. Various news outlets called the race in favor of Cotton, who defeated two-term U.S. Senator Mark Pryor.
In his victory speech, Cotton cast the election as a choice between competing visions for governance. Cotton described his support for a constitutional self-government, which he says “allows us each to flourish according to his abilities and industry, to live with the blessings of civil and religious freedom, to live under law as free men and women, and to control our government rather than be controlled by it.”
Cotton said that voters had rejected the other way of governing, which he described as “centralized and bureaucratic rule by presumed elites.”
“This other form of government, through taxing, spending, and regulating, now consumes nearly half the fruits of all our labors and savings. It intrudes on private life. Every community, every business, every school, every person gets unwanted instructions from on high, from unelected and unaccountable elites. This other form of government always wants to help, but is always hindering; constantly seeks to aid, but constantly ends up constraining. We may gain some material security by choosing this other form of government, but under it there is no true security for anyone. Because a government big enough to grant everything is also big enough to take away anything.”
Cotton said that now that the political campaign is over, it is time to get down to the serious work of governing: “I will serve and represent every Arkansan—Democrat, Republican, and everyone else. While I’m a proud Republican, you have elected me to represent Arkansas in the United States Senate, and it is Arkansas I will represent.”
Cotton ended his speech by thanking his staff, his volunteers, his hometown, his family, and his wife Anna: “I have served you before in distant lands, where troops tonight bravely defend this free government of ours. My heart is filled with gratitude for them, my old battle buddies. For my parents and my sister, who have loved and support me. For my wife, Anna, whose love sustains and completes me. And for our beloved country, whose promise I will always cherish, whose blessings I can never forget, and whose call I will always heed. And tonight especially my heart is filled with gratitude for you, for allowing me to answer that call once again.”
