Politics and government of Arkansas

Since the late 19th century, Southern Democrats of Arkansas have traditionally had an overwhelming majority of registered voters in the state. At that time, they consolidated their power and achieved effective disfranchisement of African Americans (and Republican) voters by passage of the Election Law of 1891 and a poll tax amendment in 1892, which also dropped many poor white Democrats from the rolls. Together these also suppressed the coalition of Republican and farmer-labor parties, which had threatened the Democrats. Assessing fees to register and vote resulted in many poor people being dropped from voter rolls. The Election Law set up secret ballots and standardized ballots in progressive reforms that also made voting more complicated and effectively closed out illiterate voters. It set up a state election board and officials, putting power into the hands of the Democratic Party, rather than county workers. Voter rolls declined for both black and white voters. By 1895, there were no longer any African-American representatives in the state house.[3] African Americans were closed out of the political system for decades and this continued after the advent of the Southern Strategy where Republicans became the more conservative party while the Democrats became less so as the parties essentially swapped positions over the civil rights movement as of 1954.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Arkansas Democrats have tended to be more conservative than their national counterparts, particularly in areas outside metropolitan Little Rock. Traditionally having strength in most areas outside the Northwest and North Central parts of the state, in the 21st century Democrats in Arkansas predominate along the Mississippi River in the East, in central Little Rock, and around Pine Bluff and the areas south of there along the Louisiana border.

Historically Republicans in the state were based in the northwestern areas, long a supporter of the Unionist cause in the Civil War. These were areas of yeomen farmers in the antebellum years. Planters and major slaveholders lived in the Delta area along the Mississippi River and tended to ally with the Democratic Party. As noted above, the disenfranchisement of African Americans and the consolidation of power by the Democrats left the Republicans nearly powerless. They concentrated on developing patronage positions.[4]

In 1966, Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt won a U.S. House seat from this northwestern area, the first Republican from Arkansas to be elected to Congress since after Reconstruction.[4] He held the seat until 1992, when he retired. What was more surprising, that year multi-millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller was elected to the governorship. A 1950s migrant from New York, he was joined by Republican Maurice "Footsie" Britt, a World War II hero elected as lieutenant governor. Unlike in other parts of the South at the time, Rockefeller's coalition was based on "progressive Democrats and newly enfranchised black voters." They also elected him in 1968. Rockefeller faced resistance from the conservative Democratic legislature. In 1970 the Democrats put up their own progressive candidate and defeated Rockefeller. Rockefeller died in 1973, which weakened the emerging Republican Party. It was 1978 before Ed Bethune was elected to Congress as the second Republican from the state; he served three terms from central Arkansas.[4]

It was not until the late 20th century that more white conservatives in Arkansas began to shift from the Democratic to the Republican Party. In 1989 Democratic Congressman Tommy Robinson announced his shift to the Republican Party, an indication of change.[4] The party continues to be strongest in the northwestern part of the state, due to historic conditions of that area, particularly in Fort Smith and Bentonville, as well as North Central Arkansas around the Mountain Home area. In the latter area, Republicans have been known to get 90 percent or more of the vote.

While the rest of the state used to be more Democratic, since the late 20th century Republicans have attracted members from the Little Rock suburbs, the southwest (especially Texarkana), and the northeast around Jonesboro. Tim Hutchinson, elected in 1996, was the first Republican U.S. Senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction. As an indication of increasing Republican strength in the state, in 2008, Republican nominee John McCain defeated Democratic nominee Barack Obama by 19.9%, the largest margin of victory for a candidate in Arkansas since 1984 despite McCain losing nationally.

Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was elected President of the United States candidate in 1992 and was reelected in 1996. In the former election, the state was the only one in the nation to give majority support to Clinton. However, the state has voted Republican by increasing margins in every presidential election since 1996, the longest such streak of any state in the nation, as of 2020.

Former First Lady of Arkansas and First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, was elected a United States Senator for New York in 2000.[5]

The state voted for John McCain in 2008 by a margin of 20 percentage points, making it one of the few states in the country to vote more Republican that year than it had in 2004. (The others were Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.)[6] Even while supporting Republican candidates for president, Arkansas voters continued to favor Democrats for statewide offices. In 2006, Democrats were elected to all statewide offices in a Democratic sweep that included regaining the governorship. However, in the 2010s, the Republican dominance at the presidential level spread to the local level. In 2012, they captured both chambers of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Republicans had won all statewide offices and all congressional seats in 2014, and won both Senate seats for the first time since Reconstruction. Republicans have consistently captured over 60% of the vote in statewide elections since 2012.

The current Governor of Arkansas is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, who was elected on November 8, 2022.[7][8][9] Arkansas also elects the lieutenant governor and several cabinet-level positions: secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, auditor, and land commissioner.[10] The governor appoints qualified individuals to lead various state boards, committees, and departments.

In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and can be from a different political party.[11]

Following reorganization in 2019, state government is subdivided into fifteen departments, each led by a cabinet-level official (titled secretary):

• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Corrections
• Department of Education
• Department of Energy & Environment
• Department of Finance and Administration
• Department of Health
• Department of Human Services
• Department of Inspector General
• Department of Labor and Licensing
• Department of the Military
• Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism
• Department of Public Safety
• Department of Transformation and Shared Services
• Department of Veteran Affairs

Arkansas's legislature is controlled by the Republican Party, which gained the majority in both houses following the 2012 general election.

The Arkansas House of Representatives

Arkansas State House, party breakdown 2012

The Arkansas Senate

Arkansas State Senate, party breakdown 2012

• 
  Senior Senator John Boozman
• 
  Junior Senator Tom Cotton

• 
  Rick Crawford, AR 1
• 
  French Hill, AR 2
• 
  Steve Womack, AR 3
• 
  Bruce Westerman, AR 4

Arkansas is part of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in the federal judiciary. The district's cases are appealed to the St. Loius-based United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.