RISON - The Cleveland County Election Commission formally certified the results from last week's State Senate District 1 Special Republican Primary on Monday. John Appleget, election commission chairman, said there were no changes from the preliminary figures that were released at the conclusion of the special election last Tuesday night, Aug. 18. Republican Harrell Wilson of the Staves community defeated Laura "Missy" Wardlaw of Hermitage by a 794-246 margin in Cleveland County. That reflects more than 76 percent of those who voted in the county.
Overall, Wilson won District 1 with by a 3,113 to 1,679 margin, which is about 65 percent of the vote. He will now face the Democratic nominee for the position, Eudora Mayor Tomeka Butler, in the Nov. 3 general election.
District 1 includes all of Cleveland, Ashley, Bradley and Chicot counties was well as parts of Drew, Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln counties. In a breakdown of the 17 voting precincts within Cleveland County, Wilson won all but two. Wardlaw narrowly won at Hurricane (around the Rye area) 3331 and Saline (northwest part of the county) 4-2.
Wilson took the remaining precincts by comfortable margins. His biggest victory came within his home precinct of Whiteoak in the Staves area, where he won by a 90-5 margin (95 percent). Whiteoak also had the best voter turnout of any precinct in the county at 43.98 percent.
He also got more than 80 per-cent of the vote from Inside Rison, Outside Rison, Inside Kingsland, Bowman, Niven, Redland and Smith precincts.
Wilson appreciated the strong support he received at home. He admitted that Wardlaw probably campaigned more in Cleveland County than he did since most of his focus in his primary campaign was on building support in other parts of the district.
"I had a lot of support here at home," he said. "And the people here in Cleveland County got out and supported me, voted for me by a large margin. That meant a lot."
Voter Turnout
Of the 46,173 eligible voters for the Di…