Immigration Issue Driving Arkansas Senate Race and Fight for Senate Majority

If there remained any doubt about the importance of the immigration issue when it comes to November’s mid-term elections, a new report out of Arkansas should take care of that.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican challenger Tom Cotton targeted each other’s records on border security Thursday in competing television ads, signaling the importance of the immigration issue in a race that could help determine which party controls the chamber.

Additionally, with the ongoing crisis at the border showing no signs of fading from the headlines, the Arkansas Senate race is only one more in a growing number of Senate races where the battle over the nation’s immigration policy is emerging as pivotal.

Cotton had cited border security as one of his top concerns when he launched his bid to unseat Pryor a year ago and had written an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal criticizing the immigration reform bill last summer. But the issue had been overshadowed by Cotton and Republicans instead focusing primarily on criticizing Pryor’s support for the health care law. 

Cotton and Republicans are reviving the issue over the August recess, with attention focused on the border crisis involving an influx of young Central American immigrants crossing into the U.S. illegally from Mexico. Cotton recently blamed the influx in part on the immigration reform measure.

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