Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

is a

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

in the South Central region of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Since its

admission to the Union Admission to the Union is provided by the Admissions Clause of the United States Constitution in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, which authorizes the United States Congress to admit new states into the Union beyond the thirteen states that ...

in June 1836, it has participated in 46

United States presidential election The election of the president of the United States, president and Vice President of the United States, vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are Voter registration in the United ...

s. In the realigning 1860 election, Arkansas was one of the ten

slave states In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave s ...

that did not provide ballot access to the Republican nominee,

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. Subsequently, John C. Breckinridge won the state by a comfortable margin, becoming the first

third party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a veh ...

candidate to win Arkansas. Soon after this election, Arkansas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. Following the secession, Arkansas did not participate in the 1864 presidential election. After the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, Arkansas was readmitted to the Union in 1868. In the 1872 election, all six of Arkansas's electoral votes were invalidated due to various irregularities including allegations of electoral fraud. 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. In the 1968 presidential election,

American Independent Party The American Independent Party (AIP) is an American political party that was established in 1967. The American Independent Party is best known for its nomination of Democratic then-former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who carried five s ...

candidate

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

became the second third-party presidential candidate to win Arkansas. Arkansas was the only state in the 1992 presidential election to be won by a majority of the popular vote;

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

, its governor at the time, won Arkansas with 53.21 percent of the vote. Since Clinton won re-election in 1996, however, the state has voted consistently for the Republican Party.

Presidential elections

1836 to 1856

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. The result of the election, with the victory of an ardent opponent of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, spurred the secession of eleven states and brought about the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

1868 to present

Graph

Notes

References

Works cited

* * * {{United States presidential elections United States presidential elections in Arkansas Arkansas politics-related lists