United States presidential elections in Arkansas explained

State:	Arkansas
Number Of Elections:	46
Voted Democratic:	32
Voted Republican:	12
Voted Other:	2
Voted Winning:	27
Voted Losing:	19

Arkansas is a state in the South Central region of the United States.^[1] Since its admission to the Union in June 1836, it has participated in 46 United States presidential elections. In the realigning 1860 election, Arkansas was one of the ten slave states that did not provide ballot access to the Republican nominee, Abraham Lincoln.^[2] Subsequently, John C. Breckinridge won the state by a comfortable margin, becoming the first third party candidate to win Arkansas. Soon after this election, Arkansas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.^[3] Following the secession, Arkansas did not participate in the 1864 presidential election. After the Civil War, Arkansas was readmitted to the Union in 1868.^[4] In the 1872 election, all six of Arkansas's electoral votes were invalidated due to various irregularities including allegations of electoral fraud.^[5]

Until 1964, Arkansas was considered a stronghold state for the Democratic Party, which usually carried the state by huge margins; however, recent political realignment has led to the dominance of the Republican Party.^[6] In the 1968 presidential election, American Independent Party candidate George Wallace became the second third-party presidential candidate to win Arkansas.^[7] Arkansas was the only state in the 1992 presidential election to be won by a majority of the popular vote; Bill Clinton, its governor at the time, won Arkansas with 53.21 percent of the vote.^[8] Since Clinton won re-election in 1996, however, the state has voted consistently for the Republican Party.^[9]

Presidential elections

1836 to 1856

Year! colspan="4" scope="col" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;"
Candidate		%	Votes	%
Winner	Runner-up
1836		2,380		1,334		3
1840		6,679	5,160		3
1844		9,546	5,604		3
1848		9,301	7,587		3
1852		12,173	7,404		4
1856		21,910	10,732		4

1860 and 1864

The election of 1860 was a complex realigning election in which the breakdown of the previous two-party alignment culminated in four parties each competing for influence in different parts of the country.^[10] The result of the election, with the victory of an ardent opponent of slavery, spurred the secession of eleven states and brought about the American Civil War.^[11]

Year! scope=col colspan="3" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;"
Candidate		Votes (%)	Candidate		Votes (%)	Candidate	Candidate
Winner	scope=col colspan="3" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;"	Runner-up	scope=col colspan="3" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;"	Runner-up	scope=col colspan="3" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;"	Runner-up
1860			28,732			20,063	5,357	4
1864

1868 to present

Year! scope="col" style="border-left:3px solid darkgray;" colspan="4"
Candidate		%		%	Votes
Winner	Runner-up		Other candidate
		22,112		19,078			5
		41,373		37,927
		58,086		38,649	211	6
		60,489		41,661	4,079	6
		72,734		51,198	1,847	7
		86,062		59,752	10,630	7
		87,834		47,072	11,831	8
		110,103		37,512	889	8
		81,242		44,800	972	8
		64,434		46,760	2,318	9
		87,020		56,684	5,842	9
		68,814		25,585	21,644	9
		112,211		48,879	6,999	9
		107,409		71,117	5,111	9
		84,790		40,583	13,167	9
		119,196		77,784	429	9
		186,829		27,466	1,166	9
		146,765		32,039	446	9
		157,213		42,121	793	9
		148,965		63,551	438	9
		149,659		50,959	40,068	9
		226,300		177,155	886	8
		213,277		186,287	7,008	8
		215,049		184,508	28,952	8
		314,197		243,264	2,965	6
		240,982		190,759	188,228	6
		448,541		198,892	2,887	6
		499,614		268,753	647	6
		403,164		398,041	22,468	6
		534,774		338,646	2,221	6
		466,578		349,237	5,146	6
		505,823		337,324	99,132	6
		475,171		325,416	69,884	6
		472,940		422,768	13,421	6
		572,898		469,953	6,171	6
		638,017		422,310	12,882	6
		647,744		394,409	16,276	6
		684,872		380,494	29,829	6
		760,647		423,932	13,133	6

Graph

Works cited

Book: Guide to U.S. Elections. SAGE Publications. 2010. 978-1-60426-536-1. .
Book: Burnham, Walter Dean. Presidential ballots, 1836–1892. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1955. 55008428. 6176796M.
Book: Presidential elections, 1789–1996. Congressional Quarterly. 1997. 978-1-56802-065-5. 97019084. 673017M. .

Notes and References

Web site: June 30, 2021. The South. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210711085417/https://www.britannica.com/place/the-South-region#:~:text=As%20defined%20by%20the%20U.S.%20federal%20government%2C%20it%20includes%20Alabama%2C%20Arkansas%2C%20Delaware%2C%20the%20District%20of%20Columbia%2C%20Florida%2C%20Georgia%2C%20Kentucky%2C%20Louisiana%2C%20Maryland%2C%20Mississippi%2C%20North%20Carolina%2C%20Oklahoma%2C%20South%20Carolina%2C%20Tennessee%2C%20Texas%2C%20Virginia%2C%20and%20West%20Virginia.. July 11, 2021. July 11, 2021. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Web site: Burlingame. Michael. 4 October 2016. Abraham Lincoln: Campaign and Elections. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20161121180444/http://millercenter.org/president/biography/lincoln-campaigns-and-elections. November 21, 2016. July 13, 2021. Miller Center.
News: June 8, 1861. The Secession of Arkansas. The New York Times. live. limited. July 10, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20180924072031/https://www.nytimes.com/1861/06/08/archives/the-secession-of-arkansas.html. September 24, 2018.
Web site: Reuniting the Union: A Chronology. live. July 13, 2021. Digital History. July 13, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210713172501/https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3096.
February 12, 1873. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875. live. Journal of the Senate of the United States of America. 68. 344–345. https://web.archive.org/web/20200614045424/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=068%2Fllsj068.db&recNum=343&itemLink=r%3Fammem%2Fhlaw%3A%40field%28DOCID+%40lit%28sj06845%29%29%230680344&linkText=1. June 14, 2020. July 11, 2021. Library of Congress.
Schreckhise. William D.. Parry. Janine A.. Schields. Todd G.. 2001. Rising Republicanism in Arkansas Electorate? A Characterization of Arkansas' Political Attitudes and Participation Rates. The Midsouth Political Science Review. The Arkansas Political Science Association. 5. 1–16. August 11, 2021. August 17, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210817040114/https://www.arkpsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Schreckhise-et-al.-2001.pdf. live.
Web site: Leip. David. 1968 Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210225081500/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1968&fips=5&f=0&off=0&elect=0. February 25, 2021. July 10, 2021. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
Web site: Leip. David. 1992 Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210501023037/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1992&fips=5&f=0&off=0&elect=0. May 1, 2021. July 10, 2021. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
Web site: Liep. Dave. Presidential General Election Graph Comparison – Arkansas. live. July 11, 2021. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. July 11, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210711085419/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/comparegraphs.php?year=2020&fips=5&f=0&off=0&elect=0.
Book: Egerton, Douglas. Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War. Bloomsbury Press. 2010. 978-1-59691-619-7. 19. registration.
Book: Egerton, Douglas. Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War. Bloomsbury Press. 2010. 978-1-59691-619-7. 293–305. registration.