GOP Candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State Assailed Arkansas's GOP Governor and Praised Outspoken Trump Critic Thomas Massie

One of two Arkansas Republicans vying to be the party's nominee for secretary of state has a social media feed littered with attacks on Republican officials—including the state's governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders—and praise for one of the president's foes, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

In response to a February 23 social media post arguing that Sanders's father, former Arkansas governor and current U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, "wanted people executed for exposing government crimes," the Arkansas candidate, Bryan Norris, wrote, "His daughter would love the same." Norris also criticized Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.) for saying he "support[s] and stand[s] with" Huckabee. "He stands with the donors lol," Norris responded.

Huckabee wanted people executed for exposing government crimes https://t.co/7porRHeFxF

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) February 23, 2026

While Norris says on his campaign website that "President Trump's allies endorse Bryan Norris for Secretary of State," he himself has championed one of the president's top foes, Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, whom Trump has described as "the WORST Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress."

In a Dec. 31, 2024, X post, Norris said Massie is his ideal House speaker. Responding to a social media post that asked, "Who would be your ideal House Speaker if we had a 20+ seat majority?" Norris responded "#Massie." The president traveled to Massie's district on Wednesday and delivered a speech in which he referred to the congressman as "disloyal."

"We got to get rid of this loser," he said of Massie. "This guy is bad." Massie has attempted to obstruct Trump's agenda in Congress, including by sponsoring a recent war powers resolution on Iran that the House shot down in a 219-212 vote. Trump has endorsed Massie's primary opponent, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who appeared alongside Trump in Northern Kentucky.

Norris received 34.3 percent of the vote in the March 3 primary against GOP state senator Kim Hammer, who took 33.6 percent. A third Republican, county judge Cathy Hardin Harrison, received 32 percent. The winner of the March 31 runoff between Norris and Hammer will face Democratic nominee Kelly Grappe, who ran unopposed, in the November general election.

Norris told the Washington Free Beacon that Sanders, the Arkansas governor, "is straying from the will of Arkansans and embracing an agenda that suits the political class." A September 2024 Talk Business & Politics poll found that 84 percent of Arkansas Republicans approve of the job Sanders is doing as governor.

"I'm not alone in seeing it," Norris added. "Even Mike Lindell called Kim Hammer the worst blocker for election integrity in the country." Norris added that he "stand[s] with President Trump on election security" but did not answer questions on his support for Massie.

Norris's posts put him at odds with two Republican officials who are well-regarded by the primary voters he hopes to win during his March 31. Trump won a plurality of voters in the 2016 Republican presidential primary in Arkansas and has carried the state three times by an average of 28 points.

Sanders, Trump's former press secretary, won at least 70 percent of the vote in every county in Arkansas in her 2022 primary before winning the general election by 28 points.

Norris, an Army veteran who says he manages "complex initiatives for a Fortune 500 company," has also spread conspiracy theories about the United States and Israel. In a since-deleted March 2025 X post responding to Peter Savodnik of the Free Press, who identified Lee Harvey Oswald as responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Norris wrote, "Naw my guy…. It was LBJ + CIA + Israel."

Around the same time, Norris in another since-deleted post responded to a request for users' "WILDEST THEORY" about what the "classified JFK files" would reveal by writing, "Israel."

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