Santorum, Beam, and Floyd
Lead Arab Voting

March 13, 2012
While the nation focused on the Republican Presidential Primary, two Marshall County races drew a good deal of attention on a local level. The Marshall County District Judge and Marshall County Probate Judge positions were the most contested races.

In the hotly contested battle for the district judge seat, Marshall County Assistant District Attorney Mitch Floyd won a decisive victory over incumbent Hugh Flanagan. With 44 of 46 precincts reporting at the time of this report Floyd led Flanagan 9,023 (64.94%) to 4,968 (35.06%). Floyd led the Arab voting with 961 while Flanagan picked up 830 votes.

Arab Mayor Gary Beam, who faced Marty McClendon in the Probate Judge race drew the majority of votes in his home district but apparently fell short in the county totals. With 44 of 46 precincts reporting, McClendon held a 449 vote lead over Beam. County wide McClendon tallied 6,564 votes to Beams's 6,115. At the two Arab voting precincts Beam led with 1,093 to McClendon's 760.

In the Republican Presidential Race, candidate Rick Santorum led the city, county and state vote. Arab voters cast 686 (43%) votes for Santorum, 468 for Newt Gingrich, 345 for Mitt Romney, and 94 for Ron Paul. Again with 44 of 46 precincts reporting, Santorum led Marshall County with 6,072 (40.8%). Statewide Santorum led with 35%. Click for complete county voting results...