Jed Duggar Loses Arkansas Election, Plans to Pray for Opponent

Forgive the most obvious(ly awful) introduction in celebrity gossip website history, but:

As we’ve been documenting for awhile now, Jed Duggar had been counting on (there it is!) representing the people of Arkansas in the State House for the next two years.

Alas, the residents of this great state had other ideas.

The TLC personality was defeated on Tuesday in his bid to become the Arkansas State Representative for District 89 in Springdale.

Jed — the 10th child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar — lost in his bid to knock off incumbent Megan Godfrey, who was running for a second term.

It’s hard to call this an upset, too, as Godfrey is the ESL co-director at Fayetteville Schools… while Duggar owns a car dealership in Springdale.

Godfrey is also pursuing her doctorate after a term in office… while the far-younger Duggar has no political experience and only a high school diploma.

To his credit, at least, the 21-year old accepted his loss in a humble and classy manner.

"I am grateful to everyone who supported my campaign in Springdale and to all who came out to vote for conservative values," Duggar wrote on Facebook.

He added: 

"While I am disappointed that we came up short, I am grateful for the opportunity to listen and learn from so many amazing people that make Northwest Arkansas one of the best places to live in the USA."

Duggar concluded:

"I called to congratulate Representative Megan Godfrey on her win last night, and I thanked her for keeping the campaign focused on the issues and for being courteous throughout this campaign.

"I will be praying for her and I wish her and her family nothing but the best as she embarks on serving another term representing District 89 in Little Rock."

Kind stuff all around.

Duggar’s campaign, however, wasn’t without controversy or scandal.

A number of constituents branded him "childish" for distributing leaflets that referred to Godfrey a "liberal princess."

The Sun also noted that he allegedly accepted an $8,400 donation from retired banker Ross Little, who lives in Louisiana; if true, this would violate Arkansas’ maximum single donor contribution of $2,400.

The first $2,800 donation was made at the end of August and the second donation of $5,600 was recorded on September 9, according to financial filings with the Arkansas Secretary of State.

Prior to thiis election, Godfrey told 40/29 News that she would be focusing on coronavirus relief from the outset if reelected.

"I think that one of the issues that we’ve seen, the most important all across the state of Arkansas, but especially in District 89, is just how significantly COVID-19 has hit some of our communities," she said.

"In particular the Hispanic and Marshallese community have been disproportionately impacted by COVID."

In the end, Jed did at least receive a respectable number of votes.

According to NWA Online, the unofficial results show that Jed got 44 percent of the votes, while Megan secured 56 percent.

“The district has historically had one of the lowest turnouts of any in the region. Tuesday was no exception,” the newspaper reported.

The Duggar Family has yet to make a statement on Jed’s loss.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoaalpKmsvLCwxqiqrKGgY7CwuY5rZ2toX2Z%2BcLbEnWSdrZecrrN5y6iqnqtdlr%2Bsrc2smKxllaGypMDIqKVmqJyWu7R506hkqaqRrnqnu9Fmpqmon6Oyr8CO