Pulaski County’s top spot is up for grabs this election season, with two newcomers vying for the position after a primary challenge unseated longtime County Judge Barry Hyde.
A county’s judge is often thought of as its CEO. In Arkansas, while the quorum court typically drafts ordinances and votes to put measures in place, the judge oversees and officiates all business.
Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde, a Democrat, has held the position since being elected in 2014, and after a decade-plus in office had aimed to seek yet another term.
But after a controversial land use plan was revised and presented to citizens just three business days before a scheduled quorum court vote in late 2025 and alongside growing concern among residents about hyperscale data center construction, Hyde ultimately lost his primary to challenger, retired Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, with 63% of the vote.
Now for the general election, Griffen faces off against Republican Candidate Michael Rushin in November.
While Griffen and Rushin share much common ground on the county’s future, they differ in their approach and on a few key points.
Rushin says the county has been unfairly categorized as stagnant or even in decline.
"Since 2000, Saline County and Faulkner County have grown at 55% to 60%, and Pulaski County, the capital county, the seat of state government with all the benefits you can think of, has only grown at around 11%," says Rushin. "We should be the engine of the state, and it kind of looks like we're the caboose."
Griffen agrees.
"We are the largest county in Arkansas, population-wise; we are the most diverse county in Arkansas, population-wise; we have a wealth of resources and infrastructure. We need to position ourselves so we can take maximum advantage of that and make ourselves globally attractive, locally sustainable, and constantly evolving."
To repair that future, both men see a need to improve county infrastructure to make it more desirable for industrial development.
For Griffen, his vision for the county’s future hinges on breaking down the budget; he feels the current budget situation is a failure of management and lack of transparency.
In the first 100 days, he plans to study it carefully.
"As far as I'm able to discern, we have two big problems: We spend more money than has been appropriated by our quorum court; we spend it in ways that are, secondly, not transparent or accountable," says Griffen. "The public and the quorum court were surprised to learn there was a deficit last year, but more importantly that there had been a years-long run of multi-million-dollar deficits."
Rushin’s approach, as a long-time real estate developer, is to lean into that skillset to rebuild the county’s languishing properties.
"What we have to do is, we have to contact the owner of that property and say, 'Look it's obvious you have no interest in it. So instead of waiting for five years for the city to tear it down, which also depresses the neighborhood because no one is building on that lot, sell it to the county for nickels on the dollar or let us give you a letter for your donation to the cause so that you can write it off on your taxes, get you a benefit for this.'"
Rushin’s take is that the county would remodel the home and sell it under its appraised value, recouping losses and generating a small return on investment. He says he would seek grant money to cover any shortfalls.
Two realms in which the candidates differ: hyperscale data centers and policing strategy.
Griffen has spent much of the year working to curtail future data center development. He drafted the ordinance the county quorum court passed just weeks ago.
Again, much of his discomfort with the status quo sits with a lack of transparency and infrastructure.
"Pulaski County does not have the power to ban [data centers]. I would have loved to have had that option because I think we should have the responsibility of saying whether or not a given use fits. We do have the power to regulate, and what I have drafted is a rigorous regulatory framework that goes from preapplication all the way through the lifecycle of a data center all the way to decommissioning."
Rushin says he disagrees with the state control over municipalities when it comes to data center bans, but he also sees artificial intelligence as the next wave of internet technology, and believes the county should be open to partnering with Big Tech.
"Well, AI isn't smarter than either one of us, but it sure is a lot faster than both of us, right? So how do we embrace that coming to town? How do we take that opportunity and give it to the public? So one thing I'd love to do is sit down with AVAIO and say, 'Look, we've already paid for all these public libraries in Pulaski County. Why don't you partner with us and let's put classrooms, basically, in these public libraries to teach the citizens how to utilize the benefits of AI?'"
He also likened the AI race to the space race of the 1960s, saying he would rather have the data flowing locally than in China.
The pair also differ in their approach to policing and public safety.
Wendell Griffen says he has no issue with Sheriff Eric Higgins’ track record as Pulaski County sheriff, and takes a hardline stance against Flock or any mass-surveillance cameras.
"To deploy any apparatus in the public context is a direct challenge to the fundamental principle that we have a free and open society where every person is presumably innocent of wrongdoing. I see no reason to basically treat the entire population of any community as under suspicion of crime."
Rushin says he is not outright against Flock-style surveillance cameras, but says he thinks citizen privacy is an important counterweight, and he prefers maintaining a robust police force rather than police tech.
"I've heard the great things about how it tracks this, and easier to find that. The one downside to it is, how many police officers are going to lose their jobs because the Flock camera can do their looking for you?"
Overall, both candidates say they are running to represent the concerns of all Pulaski County residents. Both say they are tired of the perceived "great political divide" and that the issues facing voters don’t have strictly partisan roots.
"We're one county, and we have to think of ourselves as a 400,000-population community," says Griffen, "with great people, and great schools, and great faith systems, and great coaches, and great opportunities and great potential. But we can only maximize it if we do it together."
"I've said many times on this trail, I don't care if you vote blue or red, I don't care if you're Black or white, I don't care if you're rich or poor, I don't care where you live," says Rushin. "If you are a taxpayer in Pulaski County, you deserve for your county government to represent you when things need to be done."
