The 2024 United States presidential election in Arkansas took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Arkansas voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Arkansas has six electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state neither gained nor lost a seat.
Trump easily carried the state for the third time in a row in 2024, this time by a 30.64-point margin, which marks the eighth consecutive presidential election cycle in which Republicans have increased their presidential margins in Arkansas. Trump's margin of victory in the state was the highest since 1972. Democrats have not won a presidential election in Arkansas since 1996.
Primary elections
Democratic primary
The Arkansas Democratic primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
Republican primary
The Arkansas Republican primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
General election
Polling
Donald J. Trump vs. Kamala Harris vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vs. Cornel West vs. Jill Stein vs. Chase Oliver
Results
By county
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
- Desha (largest municipality: Dumas)
By congressional district
Trump won all four congressional districts.
Analysis
Although former Democratic President Bill Clinton hails from the state and comfortably won it in both of his victories (1992 and 1996), Arkansas is a Southern state in the Bible Belt that has trended strongly towards the Republican Party in the 21st century, with Al Gore (from neighboring Tennessee) losing the state in 2000 by 5.45%. The last Democratic presidential candidate to come within single digits of carrying Arkansas, or even win more than 40% of the state vote, was John Kerry in 2004. The state's rightward shift continued under Barack Obama, leading to Arkansas becoming a Republican stronghold at the presidential level. In 2008, Obama became the first Democrat to win without carrying Arkansas despite decisively winning nationwide.
The GOP's popularity in Arkansas has become so pronounced that the state turned sharply against former First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Clinton in 2016, favoring Republican Donald Trump by 26.9%. Trump easily won the state again by 27.6% in 2020. In addition, Republicans have held all statewide elected positions in Arkansas since 2015.
Trump became the first Republican to carry the plurality-Black Delta county of Desha in a presidential election since landslide victor Richard Nixon in 1972, when he carried every county in the state. Trump's success in Desha, as well as his narrowed margin in other Delta region counties, was partially attributed to a decreased turnout rate in the traditionally Democratic region (of the 10 counties in the state with the lowest turnout, 4 were in the Delta despite the Delta containing only 20% of the state's counties).