Republican Party of Arkansas

Republican Party of Arkansas
Republican Party of Arkansas
Abbreviation	RPA
Chairman	Joseph K. Wood
Governor	Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Lieutenant Governor	Leslie Rutledge
Senate President pro tempore	Bart Hester
House Speaker	Matthew Shepherd
Founded	April 2, 1867; (157 years ago)
Headquarters	1201 West 6th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Membership (June 2021)	117,277
Ideology	Conservatism
National affiliation	Republican Party
State House	82 / 100
State Senate	29 / 35
Statewide Executive Offices	7 / 7
U.S. House of Representatives	4 / 4
U.S. Senate	2 / 2
Election symbol
Website
	arkansasgop.org
	Politics of Arkansas; Elections;

The Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA), headquartered at 1201 West 6th Street in downtown Little Rock, is the affiliate of the Republican Party in Arkansas. It is currently the dominant party in the state, controlling all four of Arkansas' U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, all statewide executive offices, including the governorship, and supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature.

The Republican Party of Arkansas was founded on April 2, 1867, by "the leading Union men" of Arkansas.^[2] Under Powell Clayton, it played a preeminent role in politics at the height of Reconstruction in the state (1864–1874).^[3] The party chairman is Joseph K. Wood.

History

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP (Grand Old Party), is the second oldest currently existing political party in the United States after its older rival, the Democratic Party. Both parties exist in all fifty states. Historically, prior to the late 20th century, the Republican Party was much weaker than the Democratic Party in the former states of the old Confederacy, including Arkansas.

The Arkansas party did not hire its first paid executive director until 1970, when businessman Neal Sox Johnson, then of Nashville, Arkansas, assumed the position in the last year of Winthrop Rockefeller's second term as governor of Arkansas. Johnson held the position until early in 1973, when he left Arkansas to take a position with the former Farmers Home Administration in Washington.^[4]

Between 2010 and 2014, similar to what took place in neighboring Oklahoma, Arkansas Republicans won all four U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, all of the statewide offices, and supermajority control of both chambers of the General Assembly.

Associated groups

There are six groups and these groups are: Arkansas Diversity Alliances Coalition, African American Coalition of Arkansas, Arkansas African American Trailblazers, Arkansas Federation of College Republicans, Arkansas Federation of Young Republicans, Arkansas Federation of Republican Women, and the Arkansas Federation of Teenage Republicans. The Tusk Club is another arm of the Arkansas Republican Party.

Republican governors

As of 2023, there have been a total of eight Republican governors.

#	Governor	County	Start date	End date	Time in office
9	Powell Clayton (1833–1914)	Jefferson	July 2, 1868	March 17, 1871^[a]	2 years, 258 days
—	Ozra Amander Hadley (1826–1915)	Pulaski	March 17, 1871	January 6, 1873	1 year, 295 days^[b]
10	Elisha Baxter (1827–1899)	Independence	January 6, 1873	November 12, 1874	1 year, 310 days
37	Winthrop Rockefeller (1912–1973)	Conway	January 10, 1967	January 12, 1971	4 years, 2 days
41	Frank D. White (1933–2003)	Pulaski	January 19, 1981	January 11, 1983	1 year, 357 days
44	Mike Huckabee (born 1955)	Hempstead	July 15, 1996	January 9, 2007	10 years, 359 days
46	Asa Hutchinson (born 1950)	Benton	January 13, 2015	January 10, 2023	7 years, 362 days
47	Sarah Huckabee Sanders (born 1982)	Hempstead	January 10, 2023	Incumbent	1 year, 353 days

Current elected officials

The Arkansas Republican Party controls all of the state's seven statewide offices. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and all four of the state's U.S. House seats.

Members of Congress

U.S. Senate

Republicans have controlled both of Arkansas's seats in the U.S. Senate since 2015:

Junior U.S. Senator Tom Cotton
Senior U.S. Senator John Boozman

U.S. House of Representatives

Out of the four seats Arkansas is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, all four are held by Republicans:


District	Member	Photo
1st	Rick Crawford
2nd	French Hill
3rd	Steve Womack
4th	Bruce Westerman

Statewide offices

Republicans control all seven of the elected statewide constitutional offices:

Secretary of State: John Thurston
State Auditor: Dennis Milligan
State Treasurer: Larry Walther
Commissioner of State Lands: Tommy Land

State legislative leaders

Senate President Pro Tempore: Bart Hester
- Senate Majority Leader: Blake Johnson
Speaker of the House: Matthew Shepherd
- Speaker Pro Tempore: Jon Eubanks
- House Majority Leader: Marcus Richmond

List of chairmen

This is a list of chairmen of the Republican Party of Arkansas:^[5]

1932–1955: Osro Cobb
1955–1962: Ben C. Henley
1962–1964: William L. Spicer
1964–1966: John P. Hammerschmidt
1966–1970: Odell Pollard
1970–1972: Charles T. Bernard
1972–1974: Jim Caldwell
1974–1980: A. Lynn Lowe
1980: Jeraldine D. Pruden (interim)
1980–1982: Harlan Holleman
1982: Bob Cohee (interim)
1982–1983: Morris S. Arnold
1983–1984: Bob Leslie
1984–1985: William Kelly
1985: Sharon Trusty (interim)
1985–1986: Len E. Blaylock
1986–1988: Ed Bethune
1988–1990: Dr. Ken Coon (Also serving as Executive Director)
1991–1992: Asa Hutchinson (co-chairman)
1991–1992: Sheffield Nelson (co-chairman)
1992–1995: Asa Hutchinson
1995–2002: Lloyd Vance Stone Jr.
2002–2003: John P. Hammerschmidt
2003–2004: Winthrop P. Rockefeller
2004–2007: Gilbert Baker
2007–2008: Dennis Milligan
2008–2020: Doyle Webb
2020–2022: Jonelle Fulmer
2022–2023: Cody Hiland
2023: John Parke
2023-Current: Joseph K. Wood

Electoral history

Gubernatorial

Arkansas Republican Party gubernatorial election results
Election	Gubernatorial candidate	Votes	Vote %	Result
1994	Sheffield Nelson	287,904	40.16%	Lost N
1998	Mike Huckabee	421,989	59.77%	Won Y
2002	Mike Huckabee	427,082	53.02%	Won Y
2006	Asa Hutchinson	315,040	40.67%	Lost N
2010	Jim Keet	262,784	33.63%	Lost N
2014	Asa Hutchinson	470,429	55.44%	Won Y
2018	Asa Hutchinson	582,406	65.33%	Won Y
2022	Sarah Huckabee Sanders	571,105	62.96%	Won Y

References

Notes

^ Resigned.
^ President of the Senate acting as Governor.

Citations

^ "VR Statistics Report for June 2021" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
^ Clayton, Powell (1915). The Aftermath of the Civil War, in Arkansas. New York: The Neale Publishing Company. pp. 35–37. LCCN 15004463. OCLC 3508506. OL 6574262M – via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Barth, Jay (September 19, 2017). "Republican Party". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Little Rock, Arkansas: CALS. 594. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
^ Arkansas Outlook, Arkansas Republican Party newsletter, February 1973
^ Coon, Ken, Dr. Heroes and Heroines of the Journey: The Builders of the Modern Republican Party of Arkansas. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.