Pro-Boozman PAC Attacks Arkansas Senate Candidate Jake Bequette's Military Service | Abbi Clifton
The PAC claimed Bequette lied about being an Army Ranger and the date he joined the Army.
A Political Action Committee (PAC) backing Senator John Boozman’s reelection campaign sent out a mailer claiming Bequette lied about being an Army Ranger.
The Heartland Resurgence PAC’s mailer also accused Bequette of falsely claiming he “joined the army 2 years before he actually did.” The mailer labeled Bequette “Fake Jake Bequette,” RedState reported.
Bequette’s campaign also sent a copy of documents proving his status as an Army Ranger to RedState, including one document which showed Bequette was officially awarded his Ranger tab for completing training. The campaign also provided RedState with photos of Bequette getting his tab, and him at Ranger school graduation.
Bequette’s campaign explained that the accusations of “lying” about when he joined the Army were a result of a campaign website typo that was fixed a few days later. The digital firm behind the site got the year he joined the Army confused with the year he won the Super Bowl, RedState reported, citing a campaign representative.
Bequette responded to the mailer in a video statement on Twitter.
“These desperate, last-minute smears of my military service by Team Boozman are truly disgusting and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” Bequette said.
This incident followed Bequette’s lawsuit against Arkansas state and county election officials alleging election fraud. Bequette’s name was spelled on the Republican primary ballot as “Jack” instead of “Jake” on an unknown number of ballots in Craighead and Phillips Counties. Bequette said his campaign was never notified of the problem, and neither were Arkansas voters, despite the county and state knowing about the issue since April 28, as previously reported.
County election officials later corrected the error, following Bequette’s lawsuit. County officials previously claimed they were not able to correct the error since voting had already started, according to a recorded phone conversation with election officials which Bequette posted on Twitter last week.
The Boozman campaign has not yet made any public statements regarding the mailer, nor did Boozman respond to my request for comment by the time of publishing.
The Arkansas Republican primary is scheduled for May 24, and early voting has already started.