Changes

===Challenging Kelly Bryant===

===Challenging Kelly Bryant===

Upon leaving John Brown University in 1969, Sheets became the full-time executive director of the Siloam Springs [[Chamber of Commerce]]<ref name=statement/> but the next year he was back in politics as the Republican nominee against the Democratic Secretary of State, Kelly Bryant of Hope in Hempstead County in south Arkansas. Hope is also the hometown of later Governors [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Mike Huckabee]]. In that 1970 campaign, Sheets was invited to ride on Rockefeller’s helicopter.<ref name=statement/>  He won majorities in his own Benton County and the usually Republican Searcy County. By a single vote, Sheets lost in Washington County, where many of the local Democrats were also political reformers.  Official results showed Bryant with 360,209 (62.3 percent) to Sheets’ 216,752 (37.7 percent).<ref>Arkansas Secretary of State, Election results for November 5, 1970</ref>

Upon leaving John Brown University in 1969, Sheets became the full-time executive director of the Siloam Springs [[Chamber of Commerce]]<ref name=statement/> but the next year he was back in politics as the Republican nominee against the Democratic Secretary of State, [[Kelly Bryant]] of Hope in Hempstead County in south Arkansas. Hope is also the hometown of later Governors [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Mike Huckabee]]. In that 1970 campaign, Sheets was invited to ride on Rockefeller’s helicopter.<ref name=statement/>  He won majorities in his own Benton County and the usually Republican Searcy County. By a single vote, Sheets lost in Washington County, where many of the local Democrats were also political reformers.  Official results showed Bryant with 360,209 (62.3 percent) to Sheets’ 216,752 (37.7 percent).<ref>Arkansas Secretary of State, Election results for November 5, 1970</ref>

Sheets recalls that the last pre-election poll that he had seen showed the race competitive, but the situation changed quickly when [[U.S. Senator]] [[J. William Fulbright]] lent Bryant the use of his political team. Sheets said that he had never expected to win the race<ref name=statement/> though he finished in the balloting some twenty thousand votes ahead of Rockefeller.<ref>Arkansas election returns, November 5, 1970</ref>

Sheets recalls that the last pre-election poll that he had seen showed the race competitive, but the situation changed quickly when [[U.S. Senator]] [[J. William Fulbright]] lent Bryant the use of his political team. Sheets said that he had never expected to win the race<ref name=statement/> though he finished in the balloting some twenty thousand votes ahead of Rockefeller.<ref>Arkansas election returns, November 5, 1970</ref>