Fort Smith, AR is the second largest city in Arkansas and has a rich history of political involvement. The current mayor of Fort Smith is George McGill, who was elected in 2018 and has been actively working to improve the community for residents. There are also numerous state-level representatives from the area, such as Sen. Jake Files and Rep. Jim Dotson, who both serve on various committees within the state legislature and advocate for their constituents at the Capitol in Little Rock. Additionally, there are many city council members that work to support issues related to local governance in Fort Smith. The citizens of Fort Smith have been strong advocates for their local government initiatives and take great pride in their political representation within the region.
The political climate in Zip 72901 (Fort Smith, AR) is moderately conservative.
Sebastian County, AR is very conservative. In Sebastian County, AR 30.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 66.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Sebastian county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 66.2% to 30.7%.
Sebastian county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 72901 (Fort Smith, AR) is moderately conservative.
Fort Smith, Arkansas is moderately conservative.
Sebastian County, Arkansas is very conservative.
Fort Smith Metro Area is very conservative.
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.
Fort Smith, 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).
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. 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 three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 72901 (Fort Smith)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 260 contributions totaling $26,640 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $102 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 128 contributions totaling $146,416 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,144 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)