The 1998 United States Senate election in Arkansas was held on November 3, 1998. Incumbent Democratic senator Dale Bumpers chose to retire instead of running for reelection to a fifth term. Democratic former U.S. representative Blanche Lincoln won the open seat against Republican state senator Fay Boozman. At 38, Lincoln was the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Senate and the first woman to be elected in the Senate statewide since Hattie Carraway in 1938. In 2010, Lincoln would lose re-election to a third term by Fay Boozman's brother, John Boozman.
During the campaign, Boozman caused controversy for his comments about rape, claiming that women rarely became pregnant after being raped due to a hormone he described as "God's little protective shield".