| Election Name: | 1996 United States Senate election in Arkansas |
| Country: | Arkansas |
| Flag Year: | 1924 |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1990 United States Senate election in Arkansas |
| Previous Year: | 1990 |
| Next Election: | 2002 United States Senate election in Arkansas |
| Next Year: | 2002 |
| Election Date: | November 5, 1996 |
| Image1: | File:Timothy Hutchinson, official Senate photo portrait (cropped).jpg |
| Nominee1: | Tim Hutchinson |
| Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 445,942 |
| Percentage1: | 52.70% |
| Nominee2: | Winston Bryant |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 400,241 |
| Percentage2: | 47.30% |
| Map Size: | 210px |
| U.S. Senator | |
| Before Election: | David Pryor |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Tim Hutchinson |
| After Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
The 1996 United States Senate election in Arkansas was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator David Pryor decided to retire. Republican Tim Hutchinson won the open seat, becoming the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat in Arkansas since Reconstruction in 1872 and the first to ever be popularly elected in the state. He was the first to win this seat since 1870. Hutchinson lost re-election in 2002 to David Pryor's son Mark Pryor.
In the concurrent presidential election in Arkansas, Democrat Bill Clinton — a native Arkansan who previously served as Governor — defeated Republican Bob Dole. To date, this is the last time that Republicans flipped a Senate seat in a presidential election year despite losing the state in the presidential election.
Arkansas Attorney General Winston Bryant and Arkansas State Senator Lu Hardin finished in the top two in the primary, and Bryant narrowly defeated Hardin in the runoff.
Huckabee was unopposed for the nomination.
Although Huckabee won the Senate nomination unopposed in the May primary, he abandoned his Senate bid when Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned from office and he became Governor of Arkansas.[9]
Following Huckabee's withdrawal, several candidates announced their interest in running:
The main candidates were Dickey and Hutchinson, but in light of a potential impasse, some compromise candidates were floated:
On June 11, White, Nelson, and Bethune all endorsed Hutchinson. Shortly thereafter, Jones and Dickey withdrew and endorsed Hutchinson. Brown also withdrew his candidacy to seek Hutchinson's open House seat, which he lost to Hutchinson's younger brother Asa Hutchinson in a special convention. Hutchinson was ratified as the nominee by the Arkansas Republican State Committee.[13]
Hutchinson won election to the U.S. Senate, receiving just over 5% more of the vote than his opponent Bryant. This was despite incumbent U.S. President Bill Clinton being re-elected by a 17-point margin in his home state of Arkansas, though the state had begun to trend more Republican at the time.