United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2004

United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2004

November 2, 2004

Nominee Blanche Lincoln Jim Holt Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 580,973 458,036 Percentage 55.9% 44.1%

County Results

Senator before election Blanche Lincoln Democratic Elected Senator Blanche Lincoln Democratic

Elections in Arkansas
Federal government Presidential elections 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 Presidential primaries Democratic 2008 2016 Republican 2008 2012 U.S. Senate elections 1980 1984 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2002 2004 2008 2010 2014 2016 U.S. House elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Special elections 3rd District, 2001
State government Gubernatorial elections 1912 1913 1930 1932 1958 1966 1968 1970 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 State elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Ballot measures 2004 Constitutional Amendment 3 2008 Proposed Initiative Act No. 1

The 2004 United States Senate election in Arkansas took place on November 2, 2004 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln ran for re-election. Lincoln won re-election, while President George W. Bush carried the state with almost the same margin of victory.

Background

Incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln ran for re-election. Lincoln won re-election over Republican State Senator Jim Holt while President George W. Bush carried the state with almost the same margin of victory.

The Democratic Party held super-majority status in the Arkansas General Assembly. A majority of local and statewide offices were also held by Democrats. This was rare in the modern South, where a majority of statewide offices are held by Republicans. Arkansas had the distinction in 1992 of being the only state in the country to give the majority of its vote to a single candidate in the presidential election—native son Bill Clinton—while every other state's electoral votes were won by pluralities of the vote among the three candidates. Arkansas has become more reliably Republican in presidential elections in recent years. The state voted for John McCain in 2008 by a margin of 20 percentage points, making it one of the few states in the country to vote more Republican than it had in 2004. (The others being Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia.)^[1] Obama's relatively poor showing in Arkansas was likely due to a lack of enthusiasm from state Democrats following former Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton's failure to win the nomination, and his relatively poor performance among rural white voters (Clinton, however, herself lost the state by an even greater margin as the Democratic nominee in 2016).

Democrats had an overwhelming majority of registered voters, the Democratic Party of Arkansas is more conservative than the national entity. Two of Arkansas' three Democratic Representatives are members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which tends to be more pro-business, pro-military, and socially conservative than the center-left Democratic mainstream. Reflecting the state's large evangelical population, the state has a strong social conservative bent. Under the Arkansas Constitution Arkansas is a right to work state, its voters passed a ban on same-sex marriage with 74% voting yes, and the state is one of a handful that has legislation on its books banning abortion in the event Roe vs. Wade is ever overturned.

Republican primary

General election

See also

• United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2002
• United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2008

References