I live in Arkansas, personally know Governor Beebe as a mentor, and can assure you the answer is YES. Senator Boozman really won based on two reasons. There was a lot of sympathy for him. The woman he defeated initially in 2010 had beaten his beloved brother and former Surgeon General of the state, Dr. Faye Boozman in 1998. Faye had been tragically killed a few years earlier when a barn wall fell on him and crushed him to death. Boozman is not a very elegant speaker and is rather shy. He won a crowded field in 2010 mainly because the other candidates cancelled each other out and he seemed Senatorial. In 2016, Beebe would have had the financial special interests behind him. Also he has NEVER lost a race in his entire life. Furthermore, there would have been engineered more Congressional candidates then the one who ran in the 2nd, a good friend of mine, former LR School Board President Dianne Curry. But Curry's candidacy would have assisted Beebe by energizing the African-American vote. The fact that Beebe got rid of the grocery tax and greatly reduced the gasoline tax would have allowed him populist issues to run against Boozman. Finally, Beebe knows how to raise money. He raised $1 million in 2006 in 1 week from 10 donors to kick off his first Governor's race. Beebe would have beaten Boozman handily around 56%-44% and that's accounting for a heavy Republican swing.