Politics in Arkansas is a complex and ever-evolving field. There are numerous political branches, including the state executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The Governor of Arkansas heads the executive branch, which is responsible for carrying out laws and policies. The Arkansas Legislature is comprised of the Senate and House of Representatives. They are responsible for creating new laws, managing the budget, and overseeing state programs. The Supreme Court of Arkansas makes up the Judicial Branch to interpret laws and settle legal disputes. Political candidates in Arkansas must be registered with one of the major parties recognized by the state—Democratic or Republican—in order to run for office. Candidates must also meet certain qualifications in order to be eligible to run for office in Arkansas, such as being at least 25 years old and having been a state resident for seven years prior to election day. Many Arkansans also choose to become involved in local politics by joining their local party committees or running for nonpartisan offices like school boards or city councils.
The political climate in Arkansas is strongly conservative.
In Arkansas 34.8% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 62.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, Arkansas remained overwhelmingly Republican, 62.4% to 34.8%.
Arkansas voted Republican in the previous six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Arkansas is strongly conservative.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Arkansas, Arkansas: r r R R R R
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Arkansas
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 71,788 contributions totaling $11,111,678 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $155 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 33,345 contributions totaling $33,977,610 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,019 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)