State Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest has responded to a series of mailers and text messages received by Carroll County residents over the past two weeks.

The mailers, which indicate they are paid for by “Freedom Forward Alliance” come in advance of the March 3 partisan primary and nonpartisan judicial election. King is seeking re-election to the District 28 seat in the State Senate and is being challenged in the Republican primary by Bobby Ballinger Jr. of Ozark.

Ballinger is the son of former state Sen. Bob Ballinger, who lost to King in the Republican primary for the District 28 seat in 2022.

The mailers say they are “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

In an email message Tuesday, Jan. 20, Bobby Ballinger wrote: “The only mailers I have approved and authorized are those sent from my political campaign account ‘Ballinger for Arkansas.’ I have not approved or authorized any voter contact that does not come officially from my campaign.”

King cited “dark money” — campaign spending from undisclosed sources — in responding to the mailers. King has been vocal in his opposition to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plans to build a new state prison in rural Franklin County.

“I’m not going to have the money to fight all this back,” King said. “What they’re doing is they’re trying to get you to keep swatting flies. … Their strategy is to throw all this money behind this and keep me swatting flies.”

Asked if he supports the current plan to build a prison in Franklin County, Ballinger did not say yes or no.

“(U)nlike my opponent, who hollers and calls people names, I would actually work to solve the issues surrounding the need for more prison beds in our state,” Ballinger said in his email. “Right now, I fear that very hardened criminals such as child sex offenders and those who commit felonies are shuffled from local jail to local jail because of overcrowding, and that must be fixed. As I have said numerous times, the best way to find a responsible solution is to partner with our state and locally elected leaders.

One of the mailers says King “is weak on Communist China,” and features images of military-style drones flying over a field as a man in overalls flees.

“The Chinese Communist Party is coming after Arkansas Farmers and Ranchers ….” the mailer says. “… Bryan King refuses to stop them.”

The mailer says King did not vote to ban Chinese drones in Arkansas, ban state contracts with Chinese companies or ban state funding for “institutions with a Confucius Institute,” referring to Chinese-government funded programs at U.S. colleges and universities.

As sources, the mailer lists two legislative proposals from 2025 and one from 2023. In his email, Ballinger included a lengthy list of bills that he said King either missed or voted against.

King said he missed a vote on the bill regarding Chinese drones because he was attending a family funeral.

“They just pick out of the thousands of bills that you vote or don’t vote on,” King said. “You know, I get tired of rubber-stamping things.”

Another mailer features an image of an individual in a bright costume with pink hair reading to a group of children and says King “voted to allow work liberals to indoctrinate our children.”

That mailer cites King’s vote against the LEARNS Act, which was proposed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and approved by the state legislature in 2023.

According to the mailer, the LEARNS Act “protects students from woke race and gender indoctrination.”

“It said I voted against LEARNS because I want woke stuff,” King said. “That is completely not true.”

King has explained his vote on the LEARNS Act on multiple occasions, saying he supports school choice but was concerned about how the law would be funded.

“I have consistently said we can’t pay for it,” King said.

Legislators originally earmarked $187 million to fund the program this fiscal year but have since had to approve approximately $120 million more.

“It is not cash-flowing,” King said of LEARNS. “It is literally in the red right now. They keep taking onetime funds for this, which is just draining savings accounts. That’s been the only thing I’ve said. I’ve never said anything about being woke.”

“Let me be very clear here: there are true differences between my opponent and myself,” Ballinger said by email. “He campaigned on working with Governor Sanders, but has fought with her every step of the way, he continues to miss dozens of key votes, he voted against parent empowerment in education, and sided with China for some strange reason on many of the votes he cast. My opponent has an awful record of not showing up and not voting for conservative values. My campaign is laser- focused on the issues and what I will do to help Senate District 28.”

King said he believes Carroll County voters “see through” the attack ads.

“I see overwhelmingly people don’t like this and they see through this,” he said. “This is all about the money people trying to mislead and deceive people. They’re telling lies and half-stories.”