Redistricting history and process
Since becoming a state in 1836, Arkansas has had as many as seven congressional districts. Since 1966, when the state lost two districts following the 1960 Census, the state has had four congressional districts. Although Arkansas has had the same number of districts for over 60 years, the exact configuration of the lines has varied. As the state has transitioned from a Democratic stronghold to a Republican bastion, Democratic legislators worked to protect their incumbents, gradually shifting lines as a result. A growing debate in the last two redistricting cycles has been over the Little Rock area, which has been increasingly split in recent maps.
Congressional districts in Arkansas are drawn by the Legislature, and the Governor has the ability to veto them. State legislative maps are drawn by a three-member board consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. While the state constitution requires Senate districts to be contiguous and avoid splitting counties unless necessary, no such requirement exists for congressional districts. The current congressional map was approved without the signature of Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Demographic breakdown
| District | White | Hispanic | Black | Asian | Native | Pacific |
| 1 | 75.76% | 3.13% | 16.89% | 0.96% | 2.77% | 0.19% |
| 2 | 69.12% | 5.15% | 20.33% | 2.28% | 3.03% | 0.12% |
| 3 | 71.62% | 13.89% | 3.56% | 4.18% | 5.62% | 1.35% |
| 4 | 69.62% | 6.03% | 19.76% | 1.06% | 3.31% | 0.15% |
Arkansas is one of the whitest states in the south. With a Black population of around 17.1%, only Texas has fewer Black residents among the states traditionally regarded as being southern. While Arkansas lacks the population for a majority-Black congressional district, it has enough Black voters that a reasonably compact district could be drawn where around 35-40% of voting-age residents are Black. However, the current configuration splits the three regions of the state with the most Black voters (Little Rock, Jefferson County, and the Delta) apart. As a result, districts 1, 3, and 4 have similar numbers of Black voters. Arkansas has never had a congressional district designed to elect a Black representative, whether under Democratic or Republican control, and has never elected a Black person to congress.
The 3rd district, despite having the smallest percentage of Black voters, is still fairly diverse. It has the state’s largest Hispanic population, as well as the state’s largest population of Native American voters – likely due to its proximity to Oklahoma. This district also has the state’s only substantial Asian population (based predominantly in Bentonville). Interestingly, the district is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Marshallese people in the United States, which accounts for the surprisingly large population of Pacific Islanders in the district.
| District | Bachelor’s or higher | Rank (of 435) | Non-college white | Rank (of 435) |
| 1 | 17.2% | 427th | 64.4% | 53rd |
| 2 | 31.3% | 203th | 50.4% | 152nd |
| 3 | 29.8% | 237th | 56.4% | 103rd |
| 4 | 17.7% | 425th | 59.8% | 75nd |
Educational attainment in Arkansas’s congressional districts is broadly below-average. All districts rank below the national average (32.9%) in college education, and all of them rank above the national average for non-college educated whites (42.9%).
College education in Arkansas is broadly centered in two districts. The 2nd district, which contains most of Pulaski County along with some of its more affluent suburbs, is the most college-educated, and ranks in the upper half of all congressional districts. The 3rd, meanwhile, contains all of Benton and Washington Counties. Washington is home to the University of Arkansas, the largest public university in the state; Benton is a rapidly-growing county home to Walmart, the world’s largest private employer. The rural 1st and 4th districts, in comparison, rank among the nation’s least-college educated districts.
Political history
| District | Biden% | Trump% | 2020 Margin | Shift (2016-20) |
| 1 | 28.1% | 69.0% | R+40.9% | R+6.0% |
| 2 | 42.1% | 55.2% | R+13.1% | D+1.9% |
| 3 | 36.8% | 60.2% | R+23.4% | D+5.2% |
| 4 | 31.0% | 66.2% | R+35.2% | R+4.8% |
Like most of its neighbors in the south, Arkansas had an overwhelmingly Democratic congressional delegation for nearly a century after Reconstruction. In 1966, Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt was elected in the 3rd district, beginning an unbroken streak of Republican wins in the seat – including a very narrow win over one William Jefferson Clinton in 1974. A second Republican, Ed Bethune, was elected in 1978, beginning a trend where the state alternated between a split delegation and one with three Democrats and one Republican. Despite the state’s sharp turn to the right from 2000 on, Democrats held three districts as recently as 2010; they lost two of them in that year’s red wave, with only 4th district Rep. Mike Ross surviving.
Despite the red wave, Arkansas Democrats retained their legislative trifecta. They proceeded to push an inexplicable dummymander; rather than creating a single safe district in the west, they created a status quo map with hopes of flipping back one of the three Republican districts. This plan backfired tremendously. After Ross retired in 2012, they decisively lost their only House district and failed to regain a district the rest of the decade.
The Republican-backed map passed in 2022 is mostly a continuation of the previous decade’s. However, it made a few changes. The 3rd district became more compact, losing its tendril, while Pulaski County was split three ways, strengthening incumbent French Hill in the 2nd district. This has effectively put the district out of reach of Democrats, who had made efforts to flip the Trump+9 district in 2018 and 2020.
2022 election results
| District | Incumbent | Democratic | Republican | Margin | 2020-22 Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rick Crawford (R) | 26.2% | 73.8% | R+47.6% | N/A |
| 2 | French Hill (R) | 35.3% | 60.0% | R+24.7% | R+13.9% |
| 3 | Steve Womack (R) | 32.9% | 63.7% | R+30.8% | D+1.7% |
| 4 | Bruce Westerman (R) | 26.2% | 71.0% | R+44.8% | R+2.6% |
Arkansas experienced little change from its 2020 results in most congressional districts. Rep. Rick Crawford faced nominal Democratic opposition, unlike in 2020. However, he ran well ahead of Trump’s already-impressive 40.9% win, carrying four traditionally Democratic, plurality or majority-black counties in the process. In the 2nd district, Rep. French Hill also outran Trump by a wide margin. The 3rd district saw a slight swing towards Democrats, likely due to a strong Democratic performance in Washington County; Democrat Chris Jones carried it in the gubernatorial race. The largest Republican overperformance came in the 4th district, where Rep. Bruce Westerman ran nearly 10 points ahead of Trump’s 2020 margin.
Current Representatives
- AR-01: Rick Crawford (R-Jonesboro)
- AR-02: French Hill (R-Little Rock)
- AR-03: Steve Womack (R-Rogers)
- AR-04: Bruce Westerman (R-Hot Springs)